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.  .    LIBRARY    .  . 

Connecticut 
Agricultural  College. 

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CLASS    NO l.J...Q...b.^n....« 

COST S.5..5. 

DATE.-....-(XW^---5---''- 19.0..^- 


BOOK     170.EV2    c    1 

EVERETT    #    ETHICS    FOR    YOUNG    PEOPLE 


3  T153  DD0bE5^5  3 


.V 


K'^^' 


1 


ETHICS  ^^^' 


FOR 


YOUNG    PEOPLE. 


BY 

C.     C.     EVERETT 

BussEY  Professor  of  Theology  in  Harvard  University;  Author  of  "The 
Science  of  Thought,"  "  Poetry,  Comedy  and  Duty,"  etc. 


BOSTON 

GINN     AND     COMPANY 

1893 


Copyright,  1891, 
By  C.  C.  Everett, 

93fcO. 


GINN  di  COMPANY,  BOSTON,  U,S  A. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Morality  in  General .  Chapters                          I.-X. 

Duties  Towards   One's  Self  .                 "                      XI.-XXIII. 

Duties  Towards  Others    .  "        XXIV.-XXXVIII. 

Helps  and  Hindrances  "             XXXIX.-XLV. 


Chapter  Pagb 

I.  The  Relation  of  Ethics  to  Other  Studies         .        i 

II.  Ti-iE  Relation  of  Ethics  to  Other  Studies,  — 

Contimted  .......         4 

III.  The  Relation  of  the   Different   Sciences  to 

Reality 7 

IV.  Ethics  as  a  Way  of  Life          .         .         .         .11 
V.  The  Ethics  of  Custom       .         .         .         .         •      13 

VI.  The  Imperfection  of  the  Ethics  of  Custom   .      16 

VII.  Principles  in  Morality     .         .         .         .         -19 

VIII.  The  Breaking  Up  of  the  Ethics  of  Custom  .      23 

IX.  The  Epicureans          ......      26 

X.     The  Stoics 30 

XI.     Fortitude 33 

XII.     Courage ■}>1 

XIII.  CouKAG^,  ^  Contirmed 40 

XIV.  Heroism 43 

XV.  Different  Kinds  of  Heroes      .         .         .         .46 

XVI.     Contentment Si 

XVII.     Ambition „         .      58 

XVIII.     Education  as  a  Duty 61 

XIX.  Self-Education  as  a  Duty        .         .         .         .64 


IV 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


Chapter 

XX. 

Self-Respect. 

Pace 

XXI. 

Self-Respect  conthmed  (including  Cleanliness 

AND  Purity) 71 

XXII. 

Self-Control 

•      74 

XXIII. 

Self-Reliance 

78 

XXIV. 

Relations  to  Others 

.      84 

XXV. 

Selfishness    . 

.      88 

XXVI. 

Obedience 

92 

XXVII. 

Love  and  Sympathy 

.      96 

XXVIII. 

Usefulness    . 

99 

XXIX. 

Truth  and  Honesty 

.    103 

XXX. 

Good  Temper 

106 

XXXI. 

Courtesy 

no 

XXXII. 

The  Playground 

.    114 

XXXIII. 

Fun. 

.    119 

XXXIV. 

Friendship     . 

125 

XXXV. 

The  Home     . 

.     130 

XXXVI. 

The  School  . 

137 

XXXVII. 

Patriotism     . 

143 

XXXVIII. 

Kindness  to  Animals    . 

149 

XXXIX. 

Companions    . 

152 

XL. 

Reading 

156 

XLI. 

The  Imagination   . 

160 

XLII. 

Industry 

165 

XLIII. 

Habit     . 

.     169 

XLIV. 

Temptations 

173 

XLV. 

The  Conscience     . 

178 

XLVI. 

Conclusion     . 

184 

ETHICS   FOR  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE    RELATION    OF   ETHICS   TO    OTHER    STUDIES. 

Ethics  is  the  science  of  morality.  By  science  is  here 
meant  the  systematic  treatment  of  any  object  of  study. 

Ethics  is  called  a  science,  because  it  presents  the 
principles  of  morality  in  a  systematic  form,  and  seeks  to 
find  the  basis  upon  which  they  rest. 

A  comparison  with  other  departments  of  study  may 
make  more  clear  the  nature  of  the  subjects  of  which 
Ethics  treats. 

There  are  three  kinds  of  science. 

There  are  in  the  first  place  tJie  sciences  that  treat  of 
facts,  of  their  relations  to  one  another,  and  of  the  laws 
that  govern  them.  It  is  to  these  that  the  name  sci- 
ence is  more  commonly  given. 

These  sciences  have  to  do  with  facts  past  and  future 
as  well  as  present. 

Geology  pictures  to  us  the  state  of  the  earth  long 
ages  ago,  and  astronomy,  that  of  the  heavens.  The 
astronomer  can  also  foretell  the  position  of  the  planets 
at  any  moment  in  the  future,  if  he  cares  to  make  the 
calculation ;  and  the  geologist  can  foretell  the  future  of 
the  world,  though  with  less  exactness  as  to  time. 


2  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

To  these  sciences  one  thing  is  as  important  as  another 
if  it  illustrates  the  working  of  a  general  law.  The  insect, 
the  dust  that  fills  the  air,  in  a  word,  anything  may  be 
an  object  of  study. 

You  would  hardly  believe,  for  instance,  how  much  the 
frog  has  contributed  to  the  knowledge  of  the  world. 

The  web  of  the  frog's  foot  is  so  thin  and  transparent 
that  under  the  microscope  the  blood  can  be  seen  mov- 
ing. Looked  at  in  this  way  the  blood  is  perceived  to 
be  not  a  mere  fluid.  You  can  see  what  look  like  circular 
discs  borne  along  something  like  the  cakes  of  ice  that 
are  carried  by  a  stream  in  a  freshet.  In  this  way  the 
student  of  anatomy  can  learn  in  a  moment  more  about 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  than  can  be  taught  in  any 
other  way  in  a  much  longer  time.  Moreover,  what  he 
sees  he  knows  as  he  does  not  know  what  is  merely 
told  him,  just  as,  though  you  may  have  learned  in 
books  about  the  hippopotamus,  for  instance,  the  sight 
of  one  first  gives  you  real  knowledge  about  it. 

Further,  Professor  Frog  is  not  merely  a  teacher,  he 
is  a  discoverer.  The  changes  seen  in  the  blood  when 
the  web  of  the  foot  is  inflamed,  taught  more  in  regard 
to  the  nature  of  inflammation  than  had  ever  been  known 
before. 

Through  the  frog,  galvanism  was  discovered.  Gal- 
vani,  an  Italian,  noticed  that  the  leg  of  a  dead  frog  that 
was  being  prepared  for  the  table  twitched  violently 
under  certain  circumstances.  This  observation  led  to 
examination  and  experiment,  and,  as  I  just  said,  galvan- 
ism was  discovered. 


The  Relation  of  Ethics  to  Other  Studies.  3 

In  addition  to  all  this,  so  much  has  been  learned  from 
the  frog  in  relation  to  the  nervous  system,  that  it  would 
take  almost  a  book  by  itself  to  describe  it. 

Let  any  boy  think  of  all  this  when  he  is  tempted  to 
throw  a  stone  at  a  frog,  and  ask  himself  whether  he 
is  likely  ever  to  do  so  much  good  as  frogs  have  done. 

You  probably  know  how  Franklin  discovered  that 
the  lightning  is  a  form  of  electricity  by  flying  a  kite 
in  a  thunderstorm.  I  remind  you  of  these  things  to 
show  that  there  is  nothing  so  trivial  that  it  may  not 
have  an  interest  for  science. 

It  would  be  a  good  plan  for  all  boys  and  girls  to 
study  some  science,  so  that  they  could  understand  and 
take  an  interest  in  flowers  or  rocks,  or  some  other  natural 
objects-  Then,  wherever  they  went,  they  would  find 
something  to  occupy  their  minds.  They  would  learn 
to  keep  their  eyes  open,  so  that  they  would  see  in  the 
world  a  thousand  things  that  they  would  never  have 
dreamed  of  otherwise. 

I  repeat  that  what  is  commonly  called  "■  science " 
treats  of  facts,  and  that  all  sorts  of  facts  are  important 
to  it. 


4  Ethics  for   Young  People, 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE    RELATION    OF   ETHICS   TO    OTHER    STUDIES. 

Continued. 

There  are,  in  the  second  place,  other  sciences  that 
treat  of  the  mea^is  by  which  certain  desirable  ends  may 
be  reached^ 

Health  is  one  of  the  most  desirable  things  in  the 
world,  and  thus  there  is  a  science  called  Hygiene  which 
treats  of  the  methods  by  which  health  may  be  pre- 
served. 

The  health  of  the  state  is  perhaps  more  important 
than  that  of  the  citizen ;  so  there  is  the  science  of  Polit- 
ical Economy  which  shows  the  conditions  on  which  the 
prosperity  of  the  state  depends. 

Indeed,  there  is  nothing  that  we  try  to  do  which  has 
not  or  might  not  have  its  science.  There  is  a  science 
of  music,  and  a  science  of  painting.  There  is  also  a 
science  even  of  base-ball.  The  kind  of  curve  that  the 
pitcher  must  give  the  ball  so  that  it  will  change  its  course 
just  in  time  to  baffle  the  stroke  of  the  batter  would  be  a 
matter  of  very  interesting  scientific  research. 

Such  a  study  is  called  an  art  when  the  application  of 
principles  is  more  dwelt  upon  than  the  principles  them- 
selves. Thus  we  have  both  the  science  and  the  art  of 
speaking,  of  painting,  and  of  other  matters  which  men 
try  to  accomplish. 

If  a  man  would  really   accomplish   anything  he  must 


TJie  Relation  of  Ethics  to  Other  Studies.  5 

generally  add  to  the  science  or  the  art  what  can  best  be 
called  a  "  knack."  By  this  I  mean  the  skill  that  comes 
mostly  by  practice,  added  to  a  certain  mental  fitness  or 
common-sense.  A  student  of  medicine  may  know 
all  about  diseases  and  cures,  who  could  hardly  tell  the 
measles  from  the  small-pox  when  he  first  saw  it.  The 
boy  is  taught  how  to  pitch  a  ball ;  but  at  first  trying 
it  goes  all  awry.  All  at  once  it  goes  just  as  it  should, 
while  he  seems  to  himself  to  be  doing  just  what  he  did 
before. 
/  The  sciences  that  teach  us  the  conditions  upon  which 
depend  the  ends  that  we  wish  to  bring  about,  we  may 
take  together  and  call  the  science  of  means. 

A  third  kind  of  science  shows  the  ends  which  are  in 
themselves  desirable.  This  is  the  science  that  is  called 
Ethics. 

A  man,  for  instance,  wishes  to  succeed  in  business. 
His  studies  and  his  practical  training  have  fitted  him 
to  do  this.  He  seeks  out  all  the  methods  by  which  he 
may  reach  success.  He  shrinks  from  no  labor  of  mind, 
or,  if  need  be,  of  body,  for  this  end.  In  all  this  he  is 
right.  We  admire  skill,  industry  and  pluck.  There  is, 
however,  one  kind  of  means  that  he  may  not  use.  He 
may  not  stoop  to  fraud  of  any  kind.  He  may  desire 
and  seek  wealth  ;  he  must  desire  and  seek  honor  and 
honesty.  These  are  among  the  ends  that  morality  in- 
sists upon,  and  that  may  not  be  sacrificed  to  anything 
else. 

Thus,  while  the  first  class  of  sciences  that  I  named 
has    to   do   with    all   facts,   and   the  second    only  with 


6  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

those  that  help  or  hinder  the  reaching  of  certain  ends, 
Ethics  has  to  do  with  tJie  ends  themselves. 

Ethics  is  thus  the  science  of  living;  not  of  living 
healthily  and  long,  —  the  science  of  Hygiene  has  to  do 
with  that,  —  but  of  living  well ;  that  is,  in  such  a  way  as 
to  make  life  really  worth  living. 


Relation  of  Different  Sciences  to  Reality, 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE   RELATION   OF  THE    DIFFERENT   SCIENCES   TO 
REALITY. 

The  science  of  facts  has  changed  greatly  men's  thought 
of  the  world.  Men  used  to  think  that  the  earth  stands 
still  and  that  the  sun  revolves  about  it.  They  knew 
nothing  of  steam  as  a  means  of  power,  and  were  igno- 
rant of  many  things  which  are  so  familiar  to  us,  that  a 
schoolboy  knows  more  about  them  to-day  than  the 
wisest  men  who  lived  long  ago. 

This  kind  of  science  has  not  changed  the  worlds  it  has 
simply  found  out  about  the  world.  The  facts  and  laws 
of  which  it  treats  were  the  same  then  as  now,  whether 
men  knew  them  or  not. 

Men  were,  for  example,  whirling  around  the  sun 
with  the  earth,  when  they  thought  that  the  sun  and  the 
stars  were  whirling  about  them.  Electricity  was  as 
active  then  as  now,  though  it  had  not  been  set  to  work. 
The  laws  of  the  universe  have  not  changed ;  only  men's 
notions  about  them  have  changed. 

There  are  doubtless  a  great  many  laws  of  the  world 
which  we  do  not  yet  know ;  and  a  great  many  elements 
and  forces  which  we  have  not  yet  discovered ;  so  that 
the  people  of  future  ages  will  know  as  much  more  than 
we  do  as  we  know  more  than  our  forefathers. 

By  science,  then,  we  are  slowly  learning  to  see  the 
world  as  it  is.     The  change  is  not  in  it  but  in  us. 


8  Ethics  for  Yomig  People. 

The  science  of  means  and  the  arts  that  spring  from 
it  have  really  changed  the  world.  This  power  to  change 
the  world  constitutes  a  great  difference  between  the  sci- 
ence of  means  and  that  of  facts.  Think  of  all  the  cities 
and  railways  that  have  been  built,  of  all  the  forests  that 
have  been  cut  down,  of  all  the  instruments  that  have 
been  invented,  because  men  have  been  bringing  about 
the  ends  that  seemed  desirable  by  what  seemed  to  them 
the  best  means. 

Men  have  not  always  used  the  best  means ;  they 
have  merely  used  the  best  that  they  knew. 

The  best  ways  were  always  the  best  ways,  even  before 
men  found  them  out,  or  before  they  were  able  to  use 
them.  The  savage  used  to  kindle  his  fires  by  rubbing 
two  dry  sticks  together  till  they  became  so  hot  that 
they  burst  into  a  blaze.  This  was  the  best  way  for  him 
because  it  was  the  best  way  that  he  knew.  It  was, 
however,  not  really  the  best  way,  for  a  friction  match 
would  have  been  better,  if  he  had  had  knowledge  and 
wit  to  invent  it.  The  laws  of  Hygiene  have  been  al- 
ways the  same,  though  cities  have  invited  disease  by 
being  undrained  and  filthy.  The  principles  of  Political 
Economy,  though  there  have  been  foolish  and  harmful 
laws  and  social  customs,  are  always  the  same. 

The  best  ways  are  thus  always  the  same,  just  as  the 
laws  and  forces  of  the  world  are  the  same.  The  science 
of  means  is  simply  finding  out  these  best  ways ;  just  as 
the  science  of  facts  is  finding  out  the  truth  about  the 
world. 

The  science  of  ends  has  also  changed  the  world  very 


Relation  of  D.'Jjre?it  Sciences  to  Reality.  9 

much.  In  some  former  times  men  were  much  more 
cruel  than  they  are  now,  and  cared  less  for  others,  ex- 
cept when  these  others  were  their  friends.  Those  who 
were  strong  often  robbed  or  murdered  the  weak  or  held 
them  in  slavery.  They  cared  very  little  how  others 
lived.  Now  there  is  more  helpfulness,  as  well  as  less 
cruelty,  in  the  world.  Many  are  interested  that  the  sick 
should  have  better  homes.  There  is  still  a  great  deal 
of  selfishness  and  cruelty  in  the  world,  but  this  care  for 
others  has  removed  many  of  the  evils  of  life.  We  are 
as  comfortable  and  happy  as  we  are  to-day,  because 
among  those  who  have  lived  before  us  there  were  many 
who  did  not  seek  merely  their  own  good. 

The  laws  of  right  doing,  also,  are  always  the  same, 
whether  men  know  and  obey  them  or  not. 

One  difference  between  the  science  of  ends  and  other 
kinds  of  science  is,  that  men  have  not  only  to  learn 
what  is  right,  but  have  also  to  be  willing  to  do  it-;  If 
men  really  want  to  accomplish  anything,  and  really 
know  the  best  way  of  doing  it,  they  will  hardly  fail  to 
take  this  way.  On  the  contrary,  they  may  know  what 
is  right  and  yet  be  unwilling  to  do  it. 

If  ane  does  not  know  what  is  right,  he  cannot  be  ex- 
pected to  do  it,  or  blamed  if  he  does'not  do  it.  Though 
the  life  of  love  and  of  helpfulness,  of  care  for  the  stran- 
ger and  for  the  weak,  is  and  always  has  been  the  true 
life,  it  was  not  the  fault  of  the  savage,  living  in  barbar- 
ism, that  he  did  not  follow  it,  if  he  knew  nothing  better 
than  his  own  cruel  way  of  living. 

The  science  of  niorality,  like  the  science  of  facts,  seeks 


lO  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

to  learn  what  is.  It  does  not  invent  the  laws  of  right, 
it  finds  them.  The  laws  of  right  do  not  grow.  They 
have  always  existed,  as  truly  as  the  laws  which  govern 
tjie  motion  of  the  planets. 

Future  ages  will  probably  look  down  upon  our  bar- 
barism, as  we  do  upon  that  of  the  savage.  It  will  not 
be  because  the  laws  of  right  have  become  different.  It 
will  be  simply  because  men  will  have  learned  more  of 
what  is  right,  and  will  have  become  more  willing  to 
practice  what  they  know. 


Ethics  as  a  Way  of  Life.  ii 


CHAPTER   IV. 

ETHICS   AS   A   WAY    OF    LIFE. 

The  word  Ethics  is  derived  from  a  Greek  word  ^  that 
means  custom  or  habit.  The  word  Morality  is  derived 
from  a  Latin  word  ^  having  a  like  meaning.  Thus  both 
words  meant  at  first  what  is  habitual.  Habit  and  cus- 
tom, here,  probably  refer,  not  to  the  custom  of  a  people, 
but,  that  of  men  and  women  taken  separately. 

Everybody  has  a  way  of  life  which  has  become  to  a 
certain  extent  habitual  with  him. 

In  regard  to  a  person  that  you  know  very  well,  you 
form  some  idea  of  his  way  of  life,  as  really  as  you  do  of 
his  personal  appearance.  You  know  pretty  well  what 
to  expect  of  him.  You  know  that  you  can  trust  one 
person  and  that  you  cannot  trust  another ;  that  one  boy 
will  probably  be  rude,  and  another  courteous ;  that  one 
will  probably  have  his  lesson,  and  that  another  will  not ; 
that  one  will  join  in  some  piece  of  unkind  mischief,  and 
that  another  will  not. 

You  sometimes  hear  a  story  which  you  do  not 
believe  about  some  one  whom  you  know  very  well. 
You  say,  ''  It  is  not  like  him,  he  would  never  do  so  in 
the  world."  Sometimes  we  judge  the  representations  in 
novels  in  this  way.     We  say  of  the  act  of  some  charac- 


'H^or.  2  j^^_f^  jj-i  jj^e  plural  More?, 


1 2  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

ter,  "  It  is  not  natural."  We  have  learned  to  know  the 
character  so  well  that  we  feci  that  the  author  has  made 
a  mistake. 

This  "way  of  life"  shows  itself  in  the  occupations 
and  amusements  which  different  persons  prefer.  Some 
young  people  would  rather  play  than  read ;  others 
would  rather  read  than  play.  Some  enter  heartily  into 
their  work  or  their  play.  Some  are  lazy  and  indifferent 
in  both.     Some  join  heartily  in  one,  but  not  in  the  other. 

The  difference  in  people's  ways  reaches  to  matters 
much  more  minute  than  those  that  I  have  named.  You 
cannot  describe  a  man's  *  way '  any  more  than  you  can 
his  face,  but  you  know  it  all  the  same ;  and  his  looks 
and  his  ways  together  make  up  your  general  notion  of 
him. 

It  is  this  difference  in  people's  ways  that  is  largely 
the  reason  why  you  like  to  be  with  one  person  rather 
than  with  another.  Friends  are  apt  to  be  those  whose 
ways  are  similar  or  at  least  harmonious. 

People  sometimes  change  their  ways  so  that  they  be- 
come better  or  more  agreeable.  Thus  a  person  is 
sometimes  said  to  '*  mend  his  ways." 

It  is  a  poor  excuse  for  one's  negligence  or  selfishness 
to  say,  '*  Oh,  it  is  his  way."  This  makes  the  matter 
worse  rather  than  better. 

Though  the  word  Ethics  referred  originally  simply  to 
the  habits  and  ways  of  different  people,  it  soon  came  to 
mean  a  study  of  the  best  way  of  living;  that  is,  of  the 
ends  and  methods  of  life  that  arc  most  to  be  desired. 


The  Ethics  of  Custom.  I-3 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE   ETHICS    OF    CUSTOM. 

At  all  times  the  manner  of  life  of  the  individual  has 
been  greatly  influenced  by  the  customs  of  the  society 
in  which  he  lived.  .  Our  lives  to-day  are  shaped  to  a 
great  extent  by  the  lives  of  those  about  us. 

In  the  earlier  times,  tJiis  law  of  custom  was  the  only 
standard  of  morality.  What  was  customary  was  recog- 
nized as  right,  and  was  often  believed  to  rest  on  divine 
authority.  A  large  part  of  life  was  thus  determined  by 
custom.  In  what  was  not  thus  determined  a  man  could 
do  what  he  pleased. 

Many  things  that  are  really  very  wrong  were  thus 
justified  by  custom,  and  were  sometimes  even  com- 
manded by  it.  Such  have  been,  sometimes,  the  putting 
the  aged  to  death,  which  was  required  by  custom  among 
the  Fiji  Islanders ;  and  the  murder  or  the  neglect  of 
children,  which  was  permitted.  A  Roman  father  could 
bring  up  his  child  or  not,  as  it  pleased  him.  He  had 
the  power  of  life  or  death  over  his  family.  Slavery  has 
been  thus  justified,  and  has  often  been  very  cruel.  You 
know  how  perilous  it  is,  even  to-day,  for  a  stranger  to 
find  himself  in  the  midst  of  barbarians,  as  in  the  heart 
of  Africa.  The  barbarians  feel  it  neither  a  wrong  to  slay 
strangers  nor  a  duty  to  protect  them.  They  do  in  this 
matter  just  what  they  happen  to  feel  like  doing. 


1-4  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

The  morality  of  custom  is  thus  a  very  imperfect  kind 
of  morality,  both  in  what  it  commands  and  in  what  it 
allows. 

The  morality  of  custom  has,  however,  been  of  great 
service  to  the  world.  The  customs  of  civilized  men 
have,  in  some  respects,  improved  from  age  to  age,  and 
these  better  customs  have  tended  to  make  men  better, 
and  thus  to  introduce  still  better  customs. 

Suppose  we  all  had  to  start  for  ourselves,  without 
finding  any  principles  of  action  recognized  in  the  world, 
we  should  be  much  worse  than  we  actually  are.  If  we 
each  had  to  learn  for  himself,  that  it  is  wrong  to  kill  and 
to  steal,  for  instance,  many  more  would  fail  to  learn  the 
lesson  than  do  now. 

Many  persons  at  the  present  day  recognize  no  moral 
standard  except  that  of  the  custom  in  the  community 
in  which  they  live.  They  are  in  this  like  those  who 
lived  in  more  barbarous  times ;  only  the  custom  which 
they  obey  is  often,  though  not  always,  very  much  better 
than  that  of  the  barbarians. 

The  social  customs  of  the  present  day  represent  the 
result  of  the  lives  of  all  who  have  lived  before  us.  Their 
way  of  living  makes  the  customs  of  the  community  in 
which  we  live. 

These  customs  are  different  among  different  sets  of 
persons,  even  in  the  same  town.  It  is  the  average  mo- 
rality that  determines  the  lives  of  most. 

This  average  of  custom  in  morals  is  like  the  mode,  or 
fashion,  in  dress.  A  lady  asks,  for  instance,  "What 
are  they  wearing  this  season?  " 


TJie  Ethics  of  Custom.  15 

The  lowest  and  worst  form  of  the  morality  of  custom 
takes  shape  in  the  proverb  which  tells  us  that  "When 
we  are  in  Rome  we  must  do  as  the  Romans  do."  —  This 
proverb  commonly  means  that  a  man  need  never  try  to 
be  better  than  those  about  him. 

If  men  had  always  acted  according  to  this  rule,  the 
world  would  never  have  improved ;  for  the  world  im- 
proves by  the  help  of  some,  fn  every  age,  who  are  bet- 
ter than  those  about  them,  and  thus  raise  the  general 
level  of  life.  If  men  had  always  acted  in  the  spirit  of 
this  proverb,  there  would  have  been  no  heroes,  for  the 
hero  is  one  who  is  heroic :  that  is,  who  is  braver  and 
nobler  than  other  men. 

You  would  not  think  much  of  a  boy  or  girl  who  is 
always  ready  to  do  what  the  rest  do,  whether  it  is  good 
or  bad,  wise  or  foolish.  Yet  there  are  a  good  many 
people,  old  and  young,  who  act  upon  this  principle. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  morality  of  custom  keeps 
many  men  from  sinking  to  lives  much  lower  than  they 
actually  live.  If  it  does  nothing  to  make  the  world  bet- 
ter, it  often  prevents  it  from  growing  worse.  It  helps 
to  keep  society  from  losing  the. ground  that  it  has 
dready  gained. 

It  is  a  good  rule  of  life  that  one  should  never  fall  below 
the  average  morality  of  the  society  in  which  one  lives. 

This  is  a  pretty  low  standard,  but  we  shall  have 
higher  ones  as  we  go  on.  If  all  would  act  according  to 
this  rule,  however,  we  should  escape  drunkenness,  vice, 
dishonesty,  impurity,  and  many  other  bad  things  which 
are  the  sediment  and  mud  of  social  life. 


1 6  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    IMPERFECTION    OF   THE    ETHICS    OF    CUSTOM. 

While  the  morality  that  rests  on  custom  is  better 
than  nothing,  it  is  yet  very  imperfect. 

It  represents,  as  we  have  seen,  only  the  average  moral- 
ity of  any  time  or  place.  Thus  the  influence  of  the 
best  men  is  not  felt  in  it  except  indirectly ;  that  is,  so 
far  as  they  may  in  time  affect  the  general  custom.  The 
man  whose  morality  rests  on  that  which  prevails  about 
him  does  not  ask  what  the  best  men  do,  but  what 
average  men  do  ;  or,  as  it  is  often  expressed,  what  ''  they 
do." 

TJie  morality  that  rests  upon  custom  is  uncertain. 
Customs  vary  in  different  communities,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  different  circles  of  the  same  community. 
While  certain  gross  faults  and  crimes  are  forbidden  by 
the  average  morality,  the  judgment  in  regard  to  other 
matters  varies  so  much  that  one  who  is  looking  to  cus- 
tom to  know  what  he  should  do,  might  easily  become 
confused. 

Further,  he  might  live  so  wholly  in  some  one  circle 
that  he  should  take  its  judgment  for  that  of  the  commu- 
nity. Before  the  French  Revolution,  for  instance,  the 
nobles  thought  that  their  standard  of  right  and  wrong 
was  that  of  the  nation.  They  oppressed  the  people  in 
many  cruel  ways ;   but  when  the  Revolution  broke  out 


Imperfections  of  Ethics  of  Custom.  1 7 

they  had  no  support  against  the  popular  fury.  PoHti- 
cians  have  sometimes  a  low  standard  of  political  action 
which  they  think  is  the  popular  one,  when  perhaps  it  is 
one  for  which  the  best  people  have  a  contempt.  In 
certain  trades  or  professions  there  may  be  ways  of  busi- 
ness which  contradict  the  general  principles  of  honesty 
even  as  these  are  recognized  by  the  world  at  large.  In 
a  school  or  college  there  may  be  a  standard  of  public 
sentiment  very  different  from  that  of  the  outside  world ; 
or  in  a  group  of  scholars  there  may  be  ways  of  acting 
and  of  feeling  which  contradict  the  best  sentiment  of 
the  school  at  large.  One's  moral  sense  may  thus  be- 
come confused  and  blinded. 

A  morality  based  upon  custom  is  variable.  As  one 
passes  from  one  circle  to  another,  or  from  one  commu- 
nity to  another,  his  own  morality  is  likely  to  vary  with 
his  surroundings.  Many,  who  in  a  well-ordered  society 
had  lived  respectable  lives,  have  sadly  fallen  when  they 
went  to  newer  communities,  where  they  found  ways 
of  living  of  a  low  order.  When  boys  and  girls  go 
from  their  homes  to  school  or  to  college,  they  often  find 
a  standard  of  thinking  and  of  acting  very  different 
from  that  to  which  they  had  been  used.  What  they 
had  supposed  wrong  they  sometimes  find  regarded 
as  right,  or  at  least  very  slightly  condemned.  It  is 
often  the  same  when  they  go  from  school  out  into  the 
world. 

The  morality  that  rests  upon  custom  does  not  really 
belong  to  the  man  that  practises  it.  If  he  be  good 
among  the  good  and  bad  among  the  bad ;    more  or  less 


1 8  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

honest,  according  to  the  habits  that  are  about  him ; 
high-minded  or  low-minded,  according  as  others'  minds 
are  high  or  low,  he  has  no  real  virtue  of  his  own.  If 
he  have  what  seem  to  be  virtues,  it  is  by  a  happy  acci- 
dent. 

A  person  that  always  does  what  those  about  him  do, 
is  like  a  vessel  with  a  broken  rudder,  that  drifts  with 
the  winds  and  the  currents,  and  has  no  course  of  its  own 
any  more  than  the  drifting  sea-weed.  Such  a  life  is  un- 
worthy of  any  one.  Every  one  should  have  some  moral 
aim,  and  take  the  helm  of  his  own  life,  and  steer  instead 
of  drifting. 

All  of  this  shows  the  need  of  some  principles  of 
morality  that  e  not  dependent  upon  any  chance  com- 
panionship, and  that  may  belong  to  the  man  himself 
and  not  merely  to  his  surroundings. 


Principles  of  Morality.  19 

CHAPTER    VII. 

PRINCIPLES    OF   MORALITY. 

A  PRINCIPLE  is  a  Starting-point  in  thought  or  life. 

Every  science  has  principles  which  are  its  starting- 
points.  In  geometry,  these  first  principles  are  called 
axioms.  If  one  wishes  to  show  that  a  proposition  in 
geometry  is  true,  he  tries  to  trace  it  back  to  one  or  more 
axioms  which  nobody  disputes. 

It  is  as  when  a  person  is  lost  in  a  forest  and  does  not 
know  which  way  to  go,  if  he  can  find  hi  ^ay  back  and 
consider  afresh  the  general  direction  that  he  should  take, 
he  can  start  again  with  better  hope  of  success. 

Principles  in  morals  furnish  such  starting-points  in 
the  activities  of  our  life. 

One  may  ask  in  regard  to  any  proposed  act  or 
speech,  "Is  it  right?"  ''Is  it  kind?"  "Is  it  fair?" 
"Is  it  true?" 

If  these  words  represent  the  principles  upon  which 
one  acts  and  speaks,  the  answer  to  these  questions  will 
show  him  what  he  should  do. 

In  morals,  one  may  have  bad  principles  as  well  as 
good  principles.         « 

A  man  whose  principle  it  is  always  to  look  out  only 
for  his  own  gain,  whether  the  course  he  takes  be  right  or 
wrong,  is  a  man  of  bad  principles.  He  asks  in  regard 
to  any  course,  "  Is  it  profitable?"   and  acts  accordingly. 


20  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

If  one  says  to  him,  "This  is  not  right,"  ''This  is  not 
kind,"  or  "  This  is  not  honest,"  it  does  not  affect  him. 
For  the  right,  the  kind,  and  the  honest  do  not  represent 
the  principles  upon  which  he  acts. 

A  man  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  unprincipled. 
This  generally  means  that  he  has  bad  principles. 

A  man  may  seem  not  to  have  any  principles  because 
his  actions  are  so  variable.  At  one  moment  he  may 
speak  harshly,  at  another  pleasantly,  even  when  the 
circumstances  are  very  similar.  At  one  time  he  may 
be  generous,  at  another  selfish ;  or  at  one  time  honest, 
at  another  dishonest.  Thus  he  may  seem,  to  have  no 
principles.  It  may  be  his  principle,  however,  to  do 
at  any  moment  just  what  he  feels  like  doing.  This  is 
obviously  a  form  of  selfishness,  and  may  be  a  principle 
like  any  other.  The  weathercock  is  often  regarded  as 
the  very  ideal  of  fickleness.  It  changes  its  position  so 
often  that  it  seems  the  type  of  the  lack  of  steadfastness. 
But  the  weathercock  is  not  fickle.  It  is  always  true  to 
the  wind,  and  is  thus  steadfast  in  its  relation  to  it.  So 
the  person  of  variable  moods  may  be  always  true 
to  the  principle  of  doing  what  pleases  him  at  the 
moment. 

Persons  often  do  not  know  what  the  principles  on 
which  they  act  really  are.  The  selfish  person  would 
hardly  admit,  even  to  himself,  that  his  principle  is  always 
to  look  out  for  himself  without  regard  to  other  people. 
Very  few  persons  will  admit  that  their  principle  is  to  do 
always  as  other  people  do. 

It  would  often  be   helpful  to  a  man  if  he  knew  what 


Principles  of  Morality.  21 

•the  principles  are  on  which  he  acts.  If  they  are  poor 
and  base  he  might  be  ashamed  of  them  and  give  them 
up. 

Other  people  often  know  what  a  man's  principles  are 
better  than  the  man  himself  does.  They  know  them 
just  as  we  know  the  nature  of  a  plant  from  its  leaves, 
flowers  or  fruit.  A  man  acts  from  his  real  principles, 
and  thus  he  also  is  known  by  his  fruit. 

A  boy  or  girl  that  is  stingy  cannot  have  generous 
principles.  One  whose  word  cannot  be  trusted  cannot 
really  mean  to  tell  the  truth.  One  who  grumbles  when 
any  service  is  asked  of  him  and  goes  to  it  unwillingly, 
cannot  make  it  his  principle  to  be  helpful. 

All  this  is  plain  enough  when  other  people  are  con- 
cerned. One  would  think  that  we  might  apply  the 
same  method  to  ourselves,  and  find  out  what  our  own 
principles  are  by  observing  our  actions.  It  would  often 
be  very  helpful. 

Persons  who  do  not  have  distinctly  good  principles 
are  apt  to  act,  more  or  less,  from  bad  principles. 

It  is  so  much  easier  to  act  selfishly  than  to  look  out 
for  others,  so  much  easier  to  go  with  the  crowd  than 
against  the  crowd,  that  one  who  does  not  really  mean 
to  take  the  better  course  is  very  apt  to  take  the  worse, 
without  thinking  anything  about  it. 

''  I  did  not  mean  to,"  the  boy  said,  as  we  all  so  often 
say,  when  he  had  done  a  piece  of  mischief  by  accident. 
"  But  did  you  mean  not  to?"  asked  the  teacher.  We 
all  do  more  wrong  things  by  not  meaning  not  to,  than 
by  meaning  to ;    that  is,  from   the  lack  of  any   good 


22  Ethics  for  Young  People, 

principle  rather  than  from  any  bad  principle  which  we 
possess  consciously. 

The  life  of  Benedict  Arnold  gives  a  striking  example 
of  the  wretched  results  which  may  spring  from  the  lack 
of  good  principles  that  are  distinctly  held.  After  tell- 
ing the  story  of  his  treachery,  Mr.  John  Fiske  says  of 
him,  ''  In  better  days  he  had  shown  much  generosity  of 
nature.  Can  it  be  that  this  is  the  same  man  who,  on 
the  field  of  Saratoga,  saved  the  life  of  the  poor  soldier 
who  in  honest  fight  had  shot  him  and  broken  his  leg? 
Such  are  the  strange  contrasts  that  we  sometimes  see  in 
characters  that  are  govemed  by  impulse  and  not  by 
principle.  Their  virtue  may  be  real  enough  while  it 
lasts,  but  it  does  not  weather  the  storm."  ^ 

1  John  Fiske's  "The  American  RevoluUon,"  vol.  ii.,  page  217. 


The  BreaktJig  Up  of  Ethics  of  Custoju.  23 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   BREAKING   UP   OF   THE    ETHICS   OF   CUSTOM. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  early  history  of  the  world 
the  rules  of  morality  were  not  distinct  from  those  of 
custom.  There  comes  a  time,  however,  when  the  cus- 
toms of  a  people  are  so  much  disturbed  that  it  is  im- 
possible for  them  to  continue  to  be  the  only  rule  of 
life. 

This  breaking  up  occurs  in  part  because  as  life  be- 
comes complicated,  customs  come  into  collision  with  one 
another,  so  that  a  man  cannot  follow  one  without  neg- 
lecting another. 

It  arises  in  part,  also,  from  the  fact  that  the  people  of 
one  community  come  into  relations  with  those  of  another^ 
and  find  customs  different  from  those  to  which  they 
have  been  used. 

The  condition  of  such  a  people  is  like  that  of  the 
boy  or  girl  who  goes  from  the  home  to  the  school,  or 
from  the  school  into  the  world,  and  finds  ways  of  life 
very  different  from  those  that  had  been  familiar.  When 
such  a  time  comes  in  the  history  of  a  people,  men  are 
forced  to  think  for  themselves  instead  of  blindly  follow- 
ing any  custom.  Some  will  try  to  find  out  what  is 
really  right  and  really  wrong.  Some  will  doubt  whether 
there  is  any  right  or  any  wrong. 

We  have  an  interesting  picture  of  such  a  breaking  up 


24  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

of  the  morality  of  custom,  in  the  history  of  Greece. 
One  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  life  of  Soc- 
rates. 

The  Greeks  had  certain  oracles,  the  utterances  of 
which  were  recognized  as  authoritative.  Men  applied 
to  them,  in  regard  to  both  public  and  private  matters. 
They  asked  whether  they  should  engage  in  this  or  that 
enterprise,  and,  indeed,  sought  an  answer  to  any  difficult 
question.  Socrates  claimed  that  a  divine  power  directed 
him  in  his  life,  and  especially,  it  would  seem,  warned 
him  what  he  should  not  do.  That  is,  he  had  a  private 
oracle.  Here  we  have  an  individual  acting  indepen- 
dently of  the  custom.  It  was,  in  a  sense,  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  right  of  private  judgment  among  the  Greeks. 
This  excited  great  anger  among  the  people.  When,  in 
spite  of  his  goodness,  he  was  put  to  death,  one  of  the 
accusations  which  were  brought  against  him  was  that 
he  had  introduced  new  divinities.  This  meant  that, 
so  far  as  his  private  oracle  was  concerned,  he  had  acted 
independently  of  the  custom  of  the  state. 

In  the  Greek  tragedies  there  are  very  striking  pic- 
tures of  this  law  of  custom. 

One  of  these  tragedies,  for  example,  tells  the  story 
of  Antigone.  The  king  had  commanded  that  no  one 
should  perform  funeral  rites  for  her  brother.  To  per- 
form such  rites  for  those  near  to  one  was  considered  by 
the  Greeks  one  of  the  most  sacred  duties.  Custom  also 
commanded  that  the  king  should  be  obeyed.  Antigone 
could  not  comply  with  both  these  requirements.  She 
was  obliged  to  choose  for  herself  what  she  should  do. 


The  Breaking  Up  of  Ethics  of  Custom.  25 

She  performed  the  sacred  rites  for  her  brother  and  suf- 
fered the  penalty  of  disobedience  to  the  king. 

When  the  authority  of  custom  was  thus  breaking  up, 
how  could  people  determine  what  it  was  right  to  do  ? 
They  could  act  only  as  the  young  man  or  the  young 
woman  does  who  goes  out  into  a  world  of  maxims  and 
customs  that  differ  from  one  another  and  from  the 
maxims  and  customs  of  home.  They  must  try  to  find 
certain  principles,  according  to  which  they  can  live. 


26  Ethics  for  Young  People. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    EPICUREANS. 

As  Greece,  when  it  was  passing  from  its  childhood 
to  its  maturity,  had  to  meet  the  same  question  which 
the  young  man  or  woman  has  to  meet  to-day  on  going 
out  into  the  world,  it  may  be  helpful  to  consider  one  or 
two  of  the  answers  that  were  given  by  the  Greeks. 

The  question  was,  you  will  understand,  "What  are 
the  principles  according  to  which  life  ought  to  be 
guided?"  Some  of  the  answers  given  by  the  Greeks 
have  become  very  famous. 

One  of  the  most  famous  of  these  is  that  which  was 
given  by  Epicurus.  It  was  that  the  true  principle  of 
living  is  to  get  all  the  happiness  that  is  possible.  Men 
should  live  to  get  happiness. 

According  to  this  principle,  when  one  questions 
whether  he  should  or  should  not  perform  a  certain  act, 
he  should  ask  himself,  whether  the  doing  it,  or  the  not 
doing  it,  would  make  him  the  happier.  If  it  is  the  tell- 
ing of  a  lie,  or  the  taking  of  something  that  belongs  to 
another,  or  the  helping  one  that  needs,  the  question  is 
not,  ''Is  it  right?"  but,  "Will  the  doing  it  make  me 
happier  or  unhappier?  " 

Epicurus  got  out  of  this  a  better  morality  than  would 
have  seemed  possible.  He  showed  that  one  who  does 
what  is  right  is,  on  the  whole,   happier  than  one  who 


The  Epicureans.  27 

does  what  is  wrong ;  that  temperance  brings  more  hap- 
piness than  intemperance,  virtue  than  vice,  honesty 
than  dishonesty.  He  thus  taught  what  was  practically 
a  lofty  morality. 

The  morality  that  is  based  on  the  desire  of  happiness 
has,  however,  two  difficulties. 

The  first  of  these  difficulties  is,  that  one  who  lives 
only  to  be  happy  is  really  less  likely  to  gain  happiness 
tJian  one  who  lives  for  something  else.  There  is  this 
remarkable  thing  about  happiness :  those  who  make 
it  their  chief  business  to  find  it  are  more  apt  to  fail 
than  those  who  take  far  less  pains  about  it. 

When  one  thinks  of  living  for  happiness  the  most 
natural  thought  is  that  he  wants  to  live  to  amuse  him- 
self. Now,  there  is  no  business  that  is  more  exacting 
and  wearisome  than  that  of  a  mere  pleasure-seeker. 
He  has  a  routine  in  his  life  like  everybody  else,  and  a 
routine  always  tends  to  become  mechanical.  The  word 
amusement  means  away  from  the  muses,  and  implies  an 
escape  from  the  serious  business  of  life.  When  there 
is  no  such  serious  business,  amusement  loses  its  special 
characteristic  and  much  of  its  charm.  If  a  boy  were 
playing  games  all  day,  the  games  would  become  no 
more  interesting  than  work. 

A  second  reason  why  one  who  lives  only  for  happi- 
ness is  less  likely  to  find  it  is  that  only  a  part  of  his 
life  can  be  lived  for  pleasure.  Few  boys,  for  instance, 
can  play  games  all  the  time.  Most  have  to  go  to 
school  or  do  some  kind  of  work.  The  boy  who  cares 
only  to  play  is  bored   by  all   this,  and  enjoys  himself 


28  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

only  on  the  playground  ;  that  is,  for  only  a  small  part  of 
the  day.  The  rest  of  the  time,  when  he  is  busied  with 
his  tasks,  goes  for  nothing.  He  is  simply  impatient  to 
be  through  with  them.  The  boy  who  likes  his  books 
and  likes  to  be  helpful  at  home  enjoys  himself  not 
merely  when  he  is  playing,  but  also  when  he  is  working. 
Thus  the  boy  who  cares  only  to  play  has  a  good  time 
only  a  small  part  of  the  day.  One  who  cares  for  other 
things  has  a  good  time  all  the  day. 

A  third  and  more  important  reason  why  living  for 
happiness  is  likely  to  fail  in  the  end  is,  that  happiness 
for  the  most  part  springs  from  being  interested  in  some- 
thing outside  one's  self.  It  comes  largely  from  self-for- 
getfulness,  and  absorption  in  something  for  which  one 
likes  to  live.  The  mere  pleasure-seeker  is  more  shut 
up  within  himself.  His  plans  all  have  his  self  in  view. 
He  thus  more  rarely  escapes  from  himself  into  that  free- 
dom where  happiness  is  most  likely  to  be  found. 

In  these  ways  we  may  illustrate  the  fact  that  the  mere 
pleasure-seeker  is  not  likely  to  find  as  much  pleasure  as 
one  who  seeks  for  something  else.  This  is  the  first 
difficulty  in  the  plan  of  Epicurus. 

The  second  difficulty  is,  that  if  you  make  a  person 
really  feel  that  pleasure  is  the  great  end  of  life,  the 
chances  are  that  he  will  at  once  seize  the  pleasures  that 
are  Clearest  and  easiest. 

Epicurus  taught  that  temperance  brings  more  pleas- 
ure than  intemperance.  But  what  if  some  one  had  said, 
"  I  know  that  for  me,  the  happiest  life  would  be  to  eat, 
drink,  and  be  merry."     He  taught  that  there  is  more 


The  Epicureans,  29 

happiness  in  honesty  than  in  dishonesty;  but  what  if 
some  one  had  said,  '*For  myself,  I  know  that  this 
money  which  I  could  get  by  a  little  trickery  would 
make  me  much  happier  than  I  could  be  without  it." 
I  do  not  know  what  he  could  have  said  to  those  who  are 
persuaded  that  happiness  could  be  best  reached  by 
these  means. 

One  who  is  honest  simply  because  he  has  been  taught 
that  honesty  is  the  best  policy,  will  probably  become 
dishonest  when  he  thinks  that  honesty  will  not  pay. 

The  word  Epicure  is  derived  from  Epicurus.  Now, 
Epicurus  would  seem  not  to  have  been  a  man  such  as 
we  call  an  Epicure.  The  word,  however,  shows  that 
the  world  has  felt  that  the  tendency  of  his  teaching 
would  be  to  make  Epicures. 

We  should  all  seek  happiness,  it  is  true ;  but  we 
should  have  for  the  great  object  of  our  lives  something 
larger  and  better  than  happiness. 

We  should  not  do  right,  and  be  kind  and  helpful, 
merely  because  we  think  that  in  this  way  we  shall  some- 
how get  more  happiness  for  ourselves.  We  should  do 
right  because  it  is  right,  and  be  kind  and  helpful  because 
we  care  for  those  about  us. 

At  the  same  time  we  may  learn  from  Epicurus  that, 
so  far  as  we  seek  happiness,  we  must  seek  it  in  the  way 
of  virtue ;  and  that  vice,  sooner  or  later,  brings  unhap- 
piness. 


30  Ethics  for  Young  People, 

CHAPTER   X. 

THE    STOICS. 

Another  principle  of  conduct  which  was  set  forth 
among  the  Greeks,  and  which  has  also  become  very 
famous,  was  taught  by  the  Stoics. 

The  teaching  of  the  Stoics  was  that  we  should  let 
nothing  disturb  our  self-command  and  the  repose  of 
mind  that  springs  from  that.  We  should  always  be 
masters  of  ourselves. 

Suppose  that  a  man  who  was  very  rich  has  lost  all 
his  property.  He  is  perhaps  wholly  cast  down  and 
wretched.  The  Stoic  would  say  to  him,  ''What  have 
you  lost?  Your  money  was  not  a  part  of  you."  So, 
if  one  is  suffering  pain  and  ready  to  despair,  the  Stoic 
would  say,  ''Will  you  let  the  pain  of  your  body  disturb 
the  peace  of  your  mind?" 

Thus  to  the  Stoic  his  mind,  that  is,  his  self,  was  a 
fortress  which  he  would  defend  against  all  attacks.  He 
would  be  lord  of  himself,  no  matter  what  might  hap- 
pen. 

According  to  the  Stoics,  it  should  not  be  the  great 
object  of  a  man  to  live  happily,  or  even  to  live  at  all. 
Our  principle  should  be  that  while  we  live  we  should  live 
wisely  and  well.  It  is  not  important  under  what  circum- 
stances we  live,  whether  we  be  rich  or  poor,  admired  or 
despised.  It  is  important  that  we  make  the  best  use  of 
our  circumstances,  whatever  they  may  be. 


The  Stoics.  ^\ 

We  may  take  an  example  from  the  stage.  It  does 
not  matter  to  a  great  actor  what  part  he  plays,  whether 
it  be  that  of  a  king  or  a  beggar,  but  only  that  he  plays 
his  part  well.  We  applaud  an  actor,  not  because  he 
wears  a  crow^n  or  lives  in  splendor,  but  because,  even 
if  he  is  in  rags,  he  plays  his  part  grandly.  In  life, 
we  are  apt  to  think  of  the  part  we  play  as  though  it  were 
the  most  important  thing;  and  we  are  apt  to  judge 
men  from  the  place  they  fill,  rather  than  from  the  way 
in  which  they  fill  it. 

Epictetus,  a  famous  Stoic,  took  an  illustration  from 
the  game  of  ball.  In  playing  ball,  he  tells  us,  no  one  con- 
tends for  the  ball  itself,  as  though  it  were  either  a  good 
or  an  evil.  Each  player  thinks  only  how  he  may  best 
throw  it  or  catch  it.  The  interest  of  the  game  does  not 
lie  in  the  possession  of  the  ball,  but  in  the  skill  with 
which  the  player  catches  and  throws  it.  He  means  that 
the  outward  things  of  life  have  in  themselves  no  value ; 
but  that  they  are  to  be  prized  only  for  the  skill  with 
which  we  use  them. 

Indeed,  it  is  true  that  the  happiest  persons  in  the 
world,  and  the  most  useful,  have  not  been  the  richest  or 
the  most  prosperous.  They  have  been  oftener  those 
with  whom  the  world  has  dealt  less  kindly,  but  who  have 
known  best  how  to  use  whatever  came  to  them. 

There  were  many  noble  men  among  the  Stoics ;  es- 
pecially among  the  Romans,  whose  strong  and  stern 
natures  made  them  fit  subjects  for  this  teaching.  There 
was  Epictetus,  from  whom  I  have  just  quoted.  He  was 
not  born  in  Rome,  though  much  of  his  life  was  passed 


32  Ethics  for  Young  People, 

there.  He  began  life  as  a  slave,  but  later  he  obtained 
his  freedom.  There  was,  also,  Marcus  Aurelius,  the 
Emperor,  who  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  Stoics.  We 
can  still  gain  help  from  the  writings  of  the  Emperor,  as 
well  as  from  those  of  the  freedman,  Epictetus.  This 
fact  may  illustrate  the  teaching  of  the  Stoics,  that  circum- 
stances in  themselves  are  of  small  account. 

As  we  have  received  from  Epicurus  the  word  Epi- 
cure, so  from  the  Stoics  we  have  received  the  word  Sto- 
icism, which  is  used  to-day  to  express  a  certain  kind  of 
character  and  disposition. 

Stoicism  is  the  habit  of  mind  that  takes  all  things 
calmly,  that  is  calm  in  peril,  and  peaceful  in  the  midst 
of  pain  and  misfortune. 

There  is  a  higher  morality  than  that  of  Stoicism  ;  but 
Stoicism  is  something  not  to  be  despised.  Indeed,  every 
man  ought  to  be  a  bit  of  a  Stoic,  whatever  higher  virtues 
he  may  possess. 

A  certain  amount  of  Stoicism  forms  the  best  basis 
upon  which  the  higher  virtues  can  rest.  By  this  I  mean 
that  fortitude,  courage,  patience,  and  the  like,  should 
make  the  character  strong;  while  love,  sympathy,  and 
helpfulness  make  it  beautiful. 

We  shall  now  consider  some  of  the  Stoical  virtues, 
and  also  some  others  which  resemble  Stoicism  in  that 
they  relate  to  the  management  of  one's  own  life  without 
special  reference  to  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  others. 


Fortitude,  33 

CHAPTER  XL 

FORTITUDE. 

The  word  Fortitude  is  most  often  used  to  signify  the 
brave  bearing  of  pain  or  other  suffering. 

It  does  not  mean  insensibility  to  pain,  for  some  per- 
sons whose  natures  are  very  sensitive  have  shown  the 
greatest  fortitude.  It  means  a  self-command  by  which 
one  preserves  his  independence,  and  does  not  let  the 
pain  of  the  body  too  much  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
mind. 

Fortitude  is  a  virtue  of  which  the  Stoics  made  great 
account,  both  in  their  teaching  and  in  their  lives.  When 
the  word  Stoicism  is  used  to-day,  in  the  more  general 
sense  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  without  reference  to 
the  ancient  Stoics,  this  heroic  bearing  of  pain  is  what  it 
most  often  means. 

A  fine  example  of  this  is  found  in  the  life  of  Epicte- 
tus,  the  Stoic.  While  he  was  a  slave,  it  is  said,  his  mas- 
ter, one  day,  was  beating  him  cruelly.  Epictetus  said 
calmly,  ''  If  you  do  not  look  out  you  will  break  my  leg." 
Presently,  at  a  still  heavier  stroke,  the  bone  snapped, 
'*  There,"  said  Epictetus,  as  calmly  as  before,  *'  I  told 
you  you  would  break  it." 

Every  boy  ought  to  be  enough  of  a  Stoic  to  bear  a 
certain  amount  of  pain  without  outcry  or  flinching. 

Indeed,  boys  do  show  much  of  this  stoicism  in  their 


34  Ethics  for  Yotmg  People. 

plays.  In  base-ball,  for  instance,  or  in  foot-ball,  there 
is  often  great  suffering,  which  the  looker-on  would  never 
suspect  unless  he  saw  the  blow,  or  the  fall  which 
caused  the  pain. 

This  stoicism  may  be,  in  part,  tJie  restdt  of  a  strong 
will.  The  boy  is  determined  not  to  lose  his  self-com- 
mand. He  orders  his  nature  to  hold  out,  and  not  let 
itself  be  conquered  by  this  attack. 

This  self-command  really  lessens  the  pain.  Never  is 
it  so  hard  as  when  the  will  gives  up  and  lets  the  suffer- 
ing have  it  all  its  own  way. 

In  a  winter  morning  one  boy  goes  crouching  with 
the  cold.  He  will  feel  it  ten  times  as  much  as  another 
who  puts  a  brave  front  upon  it,  takes  a  pride  in  meet- 
ing it.  The  latter  is  really  less  cold,  for  the  blood  is 
quickened  with  the  manly  will  and  warms  the  body  to  the 
fingers'  ends. 

Physicians  tell  us  that  in  hospitals  some  patients  die 
simply  because  they  give  up  to  their  disease ;  while 
others  get  well,  simply  because  they  keep  a  strong  will, 
and  do  not  surrender.  Such  power  has  the  mind  over 
the  body. 

This  self-command  may  be  helped  by  a  proper  pride. 
It  is  manly  thus  to  bear  what  one  has  to  bear. 

When  a  boy  gives  way  too  easily  to  any  pain,  he  is 
called  by  his  companions  a  *'  cry-baby."  This  word 
means  that  he  has  no  manliness.  A  baby  is  not  ex- 
pected to  have  self-command,  or  any  pride  that  would 
keep  it  from  crying  at  any  suffering,  however  slight. 

We  often  see  an  amusing  example  of  this  pride  when 


Fortitude.  3  5 

a  man  falls  on  some  slippery  place  in  the  street.  When 
he  gets  up,  however  much  he  may  be  suffering  or  mor- 
tified, he  is  apt  to  look  about  him  with  a  smile,  as  if  he 
thought  it  an  excellent  joke.  He  does  not  want  people 
to  think  that  his  spirit  fell  with  his  body. 

This  self-command  is  helped  still  more  by  interest  in 
other  tilings. 

The  boy  who  is  wounded  in  a  game  is  so  full  of  eager- 
ness that  this  helps  him  to  forget  his  pain.  So,  in  a 
battle,  the  wounded  soldier  may,  till  the  fight  is  over, 
hardly  realize  his  suffering;  and  even  then  he  may 
forget  it  in  the  triumph  of  the  victory  or  in  the  shame 
of  the  defeat. 

The  early  Christians  were  so  full  of  the  fervor  of  re- 
ligious faith  and  love,  that,  in  the  persecutions  under 
the  Romans,  they  seem  hardly  to  have  felt  the  smart  of 
the  flames,  or  the  tearing  of  the  wild  beasts. 

The  self-command  that  has  been  spoken  of  is  often 
shown  by  turning  the  thought  away  from  the  suffering 
and  fixing  it  upon  something  that  interests  and  distracts 
the  mind. 

If  one  would  bear  the  evils  of  life  heroically,  it  is  im- 
portant that  he  should  learn  to  interest  himself  in 
things  outside  himself,  so  that  he  can  occupy  his  mind, 
and  not  be  too  much  troubled  by  bodily  ills. 

So  if  one  would  help  another  bear  any  suffering,  he 
should  not  merely  pity,  and  condole  with  him ;  he 
should  try  to  interest  him  in  something :  perhaps  in  a 
book  that  he  reads  to  him,  or  in  some  plan  that  he  dis- 
cusses with  him. 


36  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

Every  person  should  train  himself  to  bear  pain 
nobly;  not  by  tormenting  himself,  but  by  making 
the  least  possible  fuss  about  anything  that  is  painful 
or  unpleasant.  He  will  find  chances  enough  for  this 
training  in  fortitude  without  making  them  for  himself. 


Courage,  37 


CHAPTER   XII.      ^ 

COURAGE. 

Courage  is  another  of  the  Stoic  virtues,  and,  like 
fortitude,  is  one  form  of  self-command. 

As  fortitude  consists  in  bearing  manfully  that  which 
is  painful  or  disagreeable,  courage  consists  in  not  shrink- 
ing from  what  is  painful  or  disagreeable. 

You  know  how  you  would  manage  with  a  shying 
horse.  The  horse  sees  something  by  the  roadside  that 
he  is  unwilling  to  pass.  He  wants,  if  he  must  go  by  it 
at  all,  to  make  a  great  sweep  around  it ;  but  what  he 
would  rather  do  is  to  turn  around  and  make  off  in  the 
opposite  direction  as  fast  as  he  can.  But  you,  whom  we 
suppose  to  be  riding,  want  to  keep  on  your  own 
course.  Then,  too,  you  think  the  horse  should  be 
trained.  You  want  to  make  him  know  that  what  he  is 
afraid  of  is  only  a  stump,  or  something  quite  as  harm- 
less. So  you  press  him  on,  quietly  but  firmly,  till  you 
bring  him  close  up  to  the  object  of  his  fear.  Then  his 
fear  is  all  gone,  and  the  next  time  you  pass  you  will 
probably  have  less  trouble. 

He  will  learn  also  to  trust  you,  because  he  has  seen 
that  you  are  wiser  than  he  ;  so  the  next  time,  he  will  be 
likely  to  approach  what  he  is  afraid  of,  if  he  finds  that 
you  think  it  is  all  right. 

Do  you  not  think  that  you  are  as  much  worth  train- 


38  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

ing  as  a  horse?  Do  not  you  sometimes  want  to  shy 
and  to  baulk?  And  do  you  not  need  then  to  make 
yourself  feel  the  bit  and  the  spur? 

Some  boys  dread  to  get  up  on  a  cold  morning.  How 
they  lie  till  the  last  possible  moment,  shivering  with 
dread,  going  through  in  imagination  the  shock  of  the 
cold  air  over  and  over  again,  and  having  all  the  pain  of 
a  dozen  starts,  before  they  make  the  real  start. 

Or  here  is  a  poor  little  fellow  who  is  suffering  with 
the  toothache.  How  he  dreads  to  have  the  v/retched 
thing  out,  how  he  puts  off  the  moment,  making  all 
manner  of  excuses  for  the  delay.  All  the  while,  he  has 
both  the  real  pain  of  the  tooth  and  the  imagined  pain 
of  the  pulling,  which  is  almost  always  a  great  deal  worse 
than  that  which  the  dentist  really  causes. 

We  all  have  a  great  many  unpleasant  things  to  do  in 
life,  and  a  great  many  persons  make  themselves  much 
extra  and  needless  pain  in  such  ways  as  I  have  de- 
scribed. They  lack  courage  and  resolution.  So,  instead 
of  doing  the  thing  at  once  and  being  through  with  it, 
they  multiply  the  evil  over  and  over  again  by  hesitation 
and  dread. 

Every  person  should  make  it  a  principle  to  train 
himself  to  quick  resolve  and  action  in  all  these  matters. 

If  there  is  a  hard  or  unpleasant  thing  to  be  done,  he 
should  take  pride  in  facing  it  at  once  like  a  man,  just  as, 
if  he  were  riding,  he  would  take  pride  in  bringing  his 
horse  promptly  and  quietly  up  to  the  dreaded  stump. 

He  should  take  pride  in  having  himself  under  com- 
mand, so  that  he  shall  not  make  life  mean  and  miser- 
able by  petty  shrinking  or  fear. 


Courage,  39 

So,  if  it  is  only  getting  up  on  a  cold  morning,  or 
learning  a  hard  lesson,  or  doing  a  bit  of  disagreeable 
work,  one  should  form  the  habit  of  meeting  the  thing 
at  once,  and  of  being  through  with  it.  In  this  way,  one 
will  have,  not  merely  the  sense  of  relief  that  the  thing 
is  done,  but  a  sense  of  manhood  and  self-command, 
which  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  things  in  life. 

An  old  farmer  used  to  tell  his  boys,  when  they  had 
a  tough  bit  of  wood  to  split,  to  strike  right  at  the  middle 
of  the  knot. 

It  is  a  good  rule  for  life,  to  strike  right  at  the  heart 
of  any  difficulty. 

If  you  have  an  unpleasant  duty  to  perform,  do  it 
promptly  and  cheerfully.  It  will  be  better  done,  and  you 
will  be  stronger  and  happier. 


40  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

CHAPTER   XIIL 
COURAGE   (^continued.) 

The  word  courage  is  most  often  used  to  mean  the 
resolute  facing  of  danger.  In  this  sense  it  may  be 
compared  with  cowardice  on  the  one  side,  and  reckless- 
ness on  the  other. 

The  coward  is  one  who,  in  any  relation  of  life,  exag- 
gerates the  danger.  When  we  think  of  it,  we  see  that 
there  is  no  condition  in  which  we  are  absolutely  safe. 
A  mad  dog  might  run  into  this  room  at  this  very 
moment  and  bite  us  all.  The  house  might  take  fire. 
When  we  go  into  the  street,  a  runaway  horse  might 
knock  us  down,  or  we  might  meet  a  person  that  has  the 
small-pox. 

All  these  things,  and  a  great  many  others,  might  hap- 
pen ;  but  we  know  that  no  one  of  them  is  likely  to 
happen,  and  so  we  do  not  trouble  our  heads  about 
them.  We  take  what  precautions  seem  necessary,  and 
then  live  as  if  we  were  absolutely  safe. 

The  coward  is  one  who,  under  some  circumstances, 
sees  these  unlikely  things  as  if  they  would  probably 
happen.  Instead  of  looking  at  the  regular  course  of 
events,  he  sees  only  these  almost  impossible  chances. 
If  he  is  in  a  boat,  he  expects  that  she  will  go  the  bot- 
tom ;  or  if  in  a  train,  that  it  will  run  off  the  track. 

Sometimes    such  cowardice    is  constitutional.      It  is 


Courage.  41 

like  a  disease.  I  knew  once  a  very  learned  and  wise 
man  who  would  never  trust  himself  on  a  railway  train. 
I  have  seen  him  going  down  to  the  station,  dressed  in 
his  best,  before  the  train  was  to  start ;  and  when  it  had 
gone,  I  have  seen  him  going  home  again.  He  had 
actually  been  afraid  to  get  into  the  car.  A  dog  would 
put  him  into  a  great  panic.  People  would,  of  course, 
laugh  a  little  about  it;  but  they  thought  none  the  worse 
of  him,  for  they  saw  that  his  fear  was  like  a  disease 
that  he  could  not  help. 

No  one  likes  to  be  thought  a  coward;  for,  in  the 
whole  history  of  the  world,  a  coward  has  been  looked 
upon  with  great  scorn. 

This  is  for  two  reasons.  One  is  that  cowardice  often 
implies  a  lack  of  conimoii  sense.  The  coward  does 
not  see  things  as  they  are.  That  which  is  so  unlikely 
that  we  can  leave  it  wholly  out  of  the  account,  the  cow- 
ard looks  upon  as  sure  to  happen. 

Another  reason  why  the  coward  is  despised  is  that 
he  lacks  manliness  and  fortitude.  He  not  only  thinks 
the  evil  will  be  sure  to  come ;  he  thinks  he  cannot  bear 
it,  if  it  does.  The  brave  man  thinks  less  of  the  possibil- 
ity of  the  evil ;  but  if  the  evil  does  come,  he  means  to 
bear  it  like  a  man. 

Recklessness  is  just  the  opposite  of  cowardice.  As 
the  coward  sees  danger  where  there  is,  practically 
speaking,  none,  the  reckless  man  does  not  see  it  where 
it  actually  exists. 

The  reckless  boy,  after  the  first  cold  night,  will  skate 
out  over  the  deep  water,  without  thinking  whether  the 


42  Ethics  for  Yoimg  People, 

ice  is  strong  enough  to  bear.  He  will  go  out  in  his 
boat,  in  a  high  wind,  without  calculating  the  strength 
of  the  wind  as  compared  with  his  own  strength  and 
skill. 

This  in  a  sense  is  bravery,  but  it  is  not  the  real  brav- 
ery. If  a  child  sits  playing  on  the  railway  track  when 
the  train  is  coming,  we  do  not  say,  ''  How  brave  that 
child  is  !  "  We  think  that  it  has  not  wit  enough  to  know 
its  danger.  So,  such  cases  as  I  have  referred  to  are 
what  we  call  /(?6'/-hardiness ;  that  is,  they  show  the 
courage  of  a  fool,  rather  than  that  of  a  brave  man ;  for 
in  these  cases  the  boy  or  the  man. rushes  into  danger  of 
which  he  does  not  dream. 

The  really  brave  man  does  not  overlook  the  danger. 
He  does  not  let  his  mind  dwell  upon  it ;  but  if  it  exists 
he  knows  just  what  it  is.  He  takes,  however,  two  things 
into  the  account. 

One  of  these  is  his  own  strength  and  skill.  His  no- 
tion of  these  is  not  based  upon  vanity.  He  has  tried 
himself,  and  knows  pretty  well  what  he  is  able  to  do. 

Another  thing  that  he  considers,  is  the  occasion  of 
the  risk,  if  there  is  any.  A  man  who  would  rush  into 
a  burning  house  simply  to  show  his  courage,  we  should 
call  a  fool.  When  the  fireman  goes  in,  perhaps  to  save 
a  child,  he  goes  knowing  all  the  danger,  though  he  does 
not  stop  to  think  of  this  ;  but  he  feels  that  it  is  his  duty, 
and  he  is  willing  to  risk  his  own  life  in  the  hope  of  sav- 
ing that  of  another.  Thus  we  admire  him  for  his  cour- 
age as  well  as  for  his  self-forgetfulness,  and  his  high 
sense  of  moral  obligation. 


Heroism.  43 

CHAPTER    XIV. 

HEROISM. 

The  persons  who  are  thus  brave  in  a  good  cause  are 
called  heroes.  I  suppose  there  has  never  been  a  coun- 
try or  a  time  which  had  not  its  heroes. 

When  we  look  back  at  the  history  of  the  world,  we 
see  how  much  we  owe  to  these  heroes  of  the  past.  We 
owe  to  them  our  liberties,  and  indeed  all  that  makes 
life  really  worth  having. 

There  is  no  reading  more  interesting  and  more  help- 
ful than  the  lives  and  deeds  of  such  heroes.  Such 
reading  is  helpful,  because  it  makes  us  feel  how  grand 
it  is  to  be  heroic,  and  may  make  us  resolve  to  catch 
something  of  the  same  spirit. 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  think  that  the  names 
of  all  the  heroes  are  written  in  history.  There  have 
been  many  heroic  lives  which  have  been  humble  and 
unknown,  but  which  deserve  the  admiration  of  the 
world  just  as  much  as  those  that  have  been  more  fa- 
mous. They  perhaps  sometimes  deserve  our  honor 
more ;  because  those  who  lived  them  knew  that  they 
should  never  receive  honor  from  men.  After  a  battle, 
men  celebrate  the  deeds  of  the  leaders  in  the  fight ;  but 
there  has  been  just  as  much  bravery  among  the  pri- 
vates, whose  names  are  never  heard  out  of  their  own 
little  circle ;    and  the  fortune  of  the  day  depended  as 


44  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

much  upon  their  courage,  as  upon  the  ability  of  the 
general  in  command. 

There  is  one  danger  in  reading  these  stories  of  heroic 
lives.  They  may  sometimes  make  us  feel  as  if  we  were 
also  heroes,  when,  perhaps,  there  is  very  little  that  is 
heroic  in  our  lives.  We  think  what  we  would  do  if 
some  great  occasion  offered,  and  it  does  not  occur  to  us 
that  we  are  cowards  in  the  little  occasions  that  meet  us 
any  day. 

A  boy,  for  instance,  walks  along  the  street,  thinking 
of  the  knights,  the  stories  of  whose  exploits  he  has  been 
reading.  He  wishes  that  he  could  have  lived  in  these 
old  times,  and  thinks  what  a  brave  knight  he  would 
have  been,  how  he  would  have  protected  oppressed 
ladies,  and  would  have  fought  the  cruel  and  false 
knights  in  the  face  of  any  odds.  As  he  thinks  about 
all  this,  he  sees  a  boy  tip  over  the  table  of  a  poor  apple- 
woman  by  the  sidewalk,  and  then  run  away  and  jeer  at 
her  from  a  little  distance.  Now,  the  boy  that  was 
dreaming  about  the  knights-errant  pities  the  poor 
woman,  and  would  like  to  stop  and  help  her  pick  up 
her  apples ;  but  he  does  not,  for  he  is  afraid  that  he 
shall  be  laughed  at.  He  feels  very  angry  with  the  boy 
that  played  the  cruel  trick  on  her,  and  would  like  to 
punish  him ;  but  he  is  afraid  that  the  other  might 
prove  to  be  the  stronger.  So  he  passes  on,  and  gives 
no  sign  of  the  pity  or  the  anger  that  he  feels.  I  hope, 
however,  that  he  does  not  imagine  himself  any  longer 
to  be  a  brave  knight  of  the  olden  time,  for  he  has  shown 
that  he  is  nothing  but  a  sneak  and  a  coward. 


Herois7n.  45 

From  this  illustration  it  will  appear  that  there  are  a 
great  many  opportunities  for  heroism  in  the  life  of  an 
ordinary  man,  and  even  of  a  boy  or  girl. 

It  requires,  sometimes,  a  great  deal  of  heroism  for  a 
boy  to  do  right,  or  even  not  to  do  wrong,  when  his 
companions  may  make  fun  of  him  for  it.  They  may 
sometimes  call  him  a  coward  simply  because  he  is  so 
brave,  while  they  are  the  cowards  who  go  with  the  ma- 
jority against  their  will. 

It  requires  heroism  to  stand  up  for  one  whom  others 
are  tormenting  because  he  is  weak,  or  a  stranger,  or, 
for  some  fancied  reason,  happens  to  be  unpopular. 

It  sometimes  requires  heroism  to  interfere  to  save 
some  poor  animal  that  is  being  abused  and  tormented. 

Fighting  is  not  generally  a  good  thing ;  but  if  a  boy 
fights  let  it  be  for  some  good  cause  such  as  I  have 
named  ;  for  the  protection  of  the  weak  and  for  the  safety 
of  the  suffering,  rather  than  in  a  quarrel  about  some 
personal  matter.  Such  fighting  is  in  the  spirit  of  the 
heroes  whose  deeds  we  so  much  admire. 


46  Ethics  for  Young  People, 

CHAPTER   XV. 

DIFFERENT   KINDS    OF    HEROES. 

If  we  knew  what  a  man  really  admires,  we  might 
form  some  guess  as  to  what  sort  of  a  man  he  is,  or  at 
least  as  to  what  sort  of  a  man  he  is  likely  to  be.  This, 
of  course,  applies  only  to  moral  qualities ;  since  a  very 
plain  person,  for  example,  may  admire  beauty,  and  a 
weak  person  may  admire  strength,  all  the  more  for  not 
possessing  it. 

Even  so  far  as  moral  qualities  are  concerned,  the 
principle  has  exceptions  which  we  need  not  consider 
here.  There  is  truth  enough  in  it  to  show  that  it  is  of 
great  importance  to  consider  what  are  the  qualities  that 
we  really  admire. 

An  Indian  was  once  looking  at  some  portraits  of 
other  Indians.  There  was  one  which  represented  a 
person  of  mild  and  thoughtful  character.  It  was  the 
one  which  we  perhaps  should  have  selected  as  the  most 
pleasing  of  them  all.  But  the  savage  did  not  like  it. 
That,  he  thought,  was  a  pretty  poor  kind  of  Indian. 
There  was  another  picture  that  represented  a  chief  who 
was  stern  and  fierce ;  who  seemed  as  if  he  would  shrink 
from  no  act  of  cruelty.  This,  the  Indian,  who  was  him- 
self wholly  uncivilized  and  fresh  from  the  wilderness, 
thought  was  an  Indian  worthy  of  the  name.  This  ad- 
miration showed  what  he  was  at  heart,  and  tended  to 
make  him  more  and  more  like  that  which  he  admired. 


Different   Kinds  of  Heroes.  47 

Because  our  admirations  have  so  much  importance,  it 
is  well  to  consider  a  little  what  kind  of  persons  are  ad- 
mired by  different  people.  The  world  has  always 
admired  its  heroes.  It  is  worth  while,  then,  to  notice 
that  there  are  different  kinds  of  heroes,  some  of  whom 
are  worthy  of  admiration  and  some  are  not. 

Courage,  strength,  energy,  skill,  grace,  —  all  these  are  \ 
worthy  of  admiration,  even  when  they  are  displayed  in! 
sport.  So  far  as  they  are  within  the  reach  of  any  one, 
they  are  worth  being  imitated  as  well  as  admired. 
They  certainly  do  not  represent  the  highest  kind  of 
heroism.  They  should  not  be  admired  to  the  exclusion 
of  better  types  ;  but  they  may  well  receive  the  enthusi- 
astic applause  that  is  sometimes  given  to  them. 

There  is  something  that  sometimes  passes  for  heroism 
which  is  not  heroism  at  all,  and  which  deserves  only 
contempt.  This  is  found  in  those  who  show  their 
strength  only  at  the  expense  of  the  weak.  A  "bully"  is 
a  person  who  likes  to  make  those  who  are  weaker  than 
himself  fear  and  obey  him.  The  "bully"  is  sometimes 
found  on  the  playground  as  well  as  in  the  larger  life  of 
the  world.  There  are  often  some  with  whom  he  passes 
for  a  hero.  He  is  apt,  however,  to  be  a  coward.  If  he 
were  not,  he  would  choose  the  strong  rather  than  the 
weak  to  measure  himself  against. 

There  are  others  who  are  called  heroes,  who  have 
really  strength  and  courage  ;  who  face  real  peril  bravely^ 
but  who  do  this  that  they  may  win  something  that  does 
not  belong  to  them.     They  rob  and  oppress  and  injure. 

Among  these  false  heroes  are  the  pirates  and  banditti 


48  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

who  are  the  admiration  sometimes  of  boys  that  have 
seen  very  Httle  of  real  life.  Their  ideal  of  a  hero  is  some 
sort  of  robber-king. 

The  stories  of  wild,  free  life  in  which  the  buccanneer 
or  the  pirate  figures,  may  have  a  certain  fascination, 
but  they  have  this  for  us  only  when  we  look  at  them 
from  the  outside.  I  mean  that  it  is  when  we  consider 
the  courage  and  the  craft,  and  forget  those  who  are 
robbed  or  slain. 

If  a  man  should  creep  iilto  your  house,  should  steal 
whatever  he  could  lay  his  hands  on,  should  perhaps  kill 
some  member  of  the  household,  should  brave  the 
police,  and  should  escape  with  his  booty,  he  would 
have  shown  courage  and  skill ;  but  I  think  you  would 
hardly  admire  him,  even  if  he  gave  a  part  of  his  plun- 
der to  the  poor.  Now  the  pirate  or  the  bandit  is  only 
the  same  mean  thief  dressed  up  in  gayer  clothes,  and 
surrounded  by  more  picturesque  associations.  He  is 
like  a  carrion  bird  dressed  out  in  gay  plumage.  We 
may  admire  the  plumage ;  but  we  can  have  only  disgust 
for  the  poor  figure  that  is  left,  when  the  feathers  are 
torn  away. 

We  may  learn  how  much  the  qualities  of  daring  and 
of  adroitness  are  really  worth,  when  we  see  them  admired 
and  perhaps  cannot  quite  help  admiring  them  ourselves, 
even  in  such  wretched  associations  as  we  have  just  con- 
sidered. 

Of  very  much  the  same  stamp  are  many  of  those 
whom  the  world  admires.  I  mean  tJie  great  conquerors 
who    have  sought  to  win  glory  and    power  and    even 


Dijf event  Kinds  of  Heroes.  49 

wealth  for  themselves,  without  regard  to  the  happiness 
or  to  the  rights  of  others.  Many  of  the  heroes  that  the 
world  honors  are  thus  no  better  than  the  buccanneer  or 
the  bandit    that     the  schoolboy  has  taken  for  his  hero. 

In  such  cases  we  may  admire  the  powers  which  are 
shown  by  the  world's  conqueror ;  but  these  must  not 
blind  us  to  the  real  nature  of  his  deeds.  He  has  finer 
feathers  than  the  bandit  king,  but  is,  at  heart,  the  same 
mean  and  selfish  being. 

What  is  meaner  than  for  one  man  to  cause  the  death 
of  thousands,  to  take  away  all  the  joy  of  countless 
homes,  simply  that  the  world  may  say  what  a  great 
man  he  is,  and  bow  down  before  him? 

It  is  a  great  lesson  which  the  world  has  been  slow  to 
learn,  to  find  that  meanness  and  selfishness  are  always 
the  same,  no  matter  how  fine  a  dress  they  wear,  or  how 
many  unite  to  shout  their  praise. 

How  different  is  military  glory  when  it  is  won  in  the 
defence  of  one's  country,  or  in  that  of  the  oppressed,  from 
what  it  is  when  it  is  sought  merely  for  its  own  sake.  I 
think  that  the  world  will  sometime  outgrow  its  admira- 
tion for  the  glory  that  is  won  for  selfish  ends  alone,  but 
it  will  never  outgrow  its  reverence  for  patriotism  and  a 
chivalry  that  is  impatient  of  any  wrong  which  is  inflicted 
upon  the  weak. 

There  is  no  kind  of  service  to  mankind  that  has  not 
had  its  heroes.  There  have  been  heroes  for  truth,  for 
justice,  for  philanthropy. 

There  could  be  no  heroism  more  worthy  of  honor 
than  that  of  Dorothea  Dix,  who  devoted  her  life  to  the 


50  EtJiics  for  Yoimg  People. 

relief  of  the  terrible  suffering  of  the  insane  in  this  coun- 
try. She  was  a  woman  with  delicate  health  and,  at  first, 
without  money  or  prominent  friends ;  yet  she  caused 
a  revolution  in  the  treatment  of  the  insane. 

You  have  no  idea  to  what  cruelty  the  insane  had 
been  exposed.  They  had  been  kept  in  filth,  without 
fire  or  comfort  of  any  kind.  This  neglect  was  not  be- 
cause people  were  so  cruel ;  it  was  simply  because  they 
thought  that  this  was  the  way  to  treat  the  insane. 

Miss  Dix,  moved  by  her  intense  pity,  used  all  her 
great  energy  and  good  sense,  travelled  from  state  to 
state,  and  from  country  to  country,  aroused  interest  in 
others,  and  guided  the  interest  which  she  had  aroused. 
New  hospitals  were  built,  wiser  and  tenderer  care  was 
used,  better  methods  were  introduced;  so  that  now  we 
can  hardly  believe  that  things  ever  were  so  bad  as  they 
were  before  her  day.' 

I  will  mention  another  hero  who  was  very  different, 
but  who  showed  his  heroism  also  in  reference  to  the 
insane. 

Charles  Lamb  was  a  writer  of  charming  essays, ^  full 
of  wit  and  fancy.  He  seemed  to  the  world  as  far  as 
possible  from  a  hero ;  yet  his  life  was  heroic.  He  was 
engaged  to  be  married  to  a  woman  whom  he  tenderly 
loved ;  but  his  sister  became  insane  and  killed  their 
mother,  and  he  gave  up  all  his  plans,  and  lived  for  her. 
He  undertook  to  take  care  of  her.  She  lived  with  him  ; 
only  when  her  attacks  of  insanity  returned,  he  took  her 

^  See  the  Life  of  Dorothea  Dix,  by  Francis  Tiffany. 
^  The  Essays  of  EHa. 


Different  Kinds  of  Heroes.  5  i 

to  a  hospital  till  she  had  recovered.  It  was  a  sad  sight 
to  see  the  brother  and  sister  walking  across  the  fields  to 
the  hospital  together,  when  she  felt  that  the  trouble  was 
coming  on.  His  life  was  lived  for  this  sister,  so  sweet 
and  lovely  when  she  was  herself,  so  wild  and  ungovern- 
able when  her  fits  of  insanity  came  upon  her ;  who  in 
her  insanity  had  committed  that  terrible  deed.  Th-is 
was,  you  must  remember,  while  the  insane,  in  general, 
were  treated  with  the   cruelty  that    I    have   described. 

I  have  in  mind  many  heroes  of  all  kinds,  to  whose 
lives  I  should  gladly  refer,  but  I  have  no  space. 
They  are  found  in  all  forms  of  life.  There  are  railway 
engineers,  who,  when  they  saw  that  a  collision  could 
not  be  avoided,  have  remained  at  their  place  to  lighten, 
if  possible,  the  shock,  and  have  been  killed ;  sea  cap- 
tains, who  have  remained  at  their  posts  till  all  others  had 
left,  and  have  gone  down  with  their  ships ;  physicians 
and  nurses,  and  sisters  of  charity,  who  have  not  shrunk 
from  pestilence  in  order  to  save  life,  or  to  comfort  the 
dying.  There  was  Father  Damien,  a  catholic  priest, 
who  so  pitied  the  lepers,  who  were  confined  to  an  island, 
deprived  alike  of  the  comforts  of  this  world  and  of  the 
consolation  of  religion,  that  he  went  to  live  with  them. 
He  knew  that  when  he  once  joined  them  he  should 
probably  take  their  disease,  and,  in  any  case,  could 
never  leave  them.  But  he  went  to  them  and  shared 
their  lot,  living  and  dying  with  them,  seeking  to  do  them 
good. 

I  would  advise  each  of  you  to  keep  a  book  of  heroes, 
and  put  down  in  it  the  names  of  all  the  heroic  persons 


52  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

of  whom  you  read  in  history,  or  in  the  newspapers,  or 
of  whom  you  hear  in  your  daily  Hfe.  You  can  make 
divisions  and  classes  of  heroes,  according  to  the  purpose 
of  their  acts,  whether  for  patriotism,  or  science,  or  phil- 
anthropy, or  religion,  or  whatever  cause.  Then  you 
can  decide  who  are  the  greatest  heroes,  and  whom  you 
would  rather  be  like.  Only  remember  that  keeping  a 
book  of  heroes  is  not  to  be  heroic ;  seek  really  to  be  a 
hero  in  your  own  life. 

There  are  many  who  have  been  heroes  in  the  most 
common  lives  ;  boys  and  girls  who  have  sacrificed  many 
pleasures  to  obtain  an  education ;  boys  and  girls  who 
have  given  up  the  idea  of  an  education,  because  they 
felt  that  they  were  too  much  needed  by  their  parents  or 
by  their  younger  brothers  or  sisters ;  those  who  have 
given  up  the  dearest  plans,  or  the  most  attractive  pleas- 
ures, for  the  sake  of  those  who  were  dependent  upon 
them.  It  is  as  heroic  to  give  up  one's  pleasure  for  the 
sake  of  the  sick  at  home,  as  to  go  to  serve  in  a  hospital. 
Heroism  needs  no  setting-off  of  romance  to  be  worthy 
of  the  name. 

Such  unpretending  heroes  as  I  have  described  are 
worthy  to  have  their  names  in  your  hero-book ;  and  to 
be  imitated  in  your  lives. 


Contentment.  53 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

CONTENTMENT. 

For  contentment  are  needed  both  the  fortitude  and 
the  courage  of  which  we  have  been  speaking :  fortitude 
to  bear  cheerfully  whatever  may  be  disagreeable  in  the 
present;  and  courage  to  meet  bravely  the  uncertainties 
of  the  future. 

The  habit  of  discontent  is  something  like  cowardice. 
As  cowardice  sees  all  possible  elements  of  danger,  but 
does  not  see  the  elements  of  safety  which  far  outbalance 
the  others,  so  discontent  sees  only  what  is  unpleasant, 
and  overlooks  the  mass  of  pleasant  things  which  for  the 
most  part  outnumber  them. 

As  there  is  always,  theoretically  speaking,  some  vague 
and  remote  possibility  of  the  perils  that  cowardice  fears, 
so  discontent  is  never  wholly  without  reason.  In  every 
life  there  are  actually  some  things  which  are  not  agree- 
able. Discontent  sees  them  and  thus  justifies  itself. 
Its  mistake  is  that  it  sees  these  alone,  or  out  of  all  pro- 
portion with  other  things. 

If  you  are  discontented,  the  feeling  is  probably  based 
upon  something  which  is  really  unpleasant,  and  you 
may,  in  thinking  upon  this,  feel  that  your  discontent  is 
justified.  What  you  have  to  consider,  however,  is 
whether  this  bit  of  discomfort  is  not  outweighed  by 
pleasant  things,  and  whether  you  are   right  in  letting 


54  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

this  take  away  the  comfort  of  your  Hfe.  There  is  rather 
a  slangy  proverb  which  has  a  good  deal  of  common 
sense  in  it.  It  says  of  something  that  one  does  not 
fancy,  "If  you  do  not  like  it,  you  must  lump  it."  That 
is,  you  must  not  take  it  by  itself,  but  let  it  find  its  place 
in  the  whole  of  your  life. 

There  is  a  story  of  a  man  who  determined  that  one 
person  in  the  world  should  be  perfectly  happy.  He 
found  a  poor  woman  living  most  wretchedly,  took 
her  out  of  her  wretchedness,  gave  her  a  nice  little  cot- 
tage, with  a  pleasant  garden,  and  clothing  and  money 
and  all  that  seemed  needed  for  her  comfort.  In  a  year 
he  came  to  see  her  to  hear  the  story  of  her  happiness, 
but  he  found  her  as  wretched  as  ever.  Her  neighbor 
had  a  pea-hen,  the  voice  of  which  was  so  unpleasant  to 
her  that  it  took  away  all  her  pleasure,  and  she  was 
as  unhappy  as  she  was  at  first.  This  woman  was  per- 
fectly right  in  not  liking  the  voice  of  the  pea-hen,  which 
is  certainly  not  musical ;  but  she  was  wrong  in  letting 
this  single  bit  of  unpleasantness  take  away  her  satisfac- 
tion in  all  the  pleasant  things  that  were  around  her. 

It  might  be  thought  that  the  habit  of  discontent 
would  bring  its  own  cure.  Certainly  it  brings  its  own 
punishment.  We  often  try  to  correct  faults  by  showing 
the  unhappiness  that  they  will  bring ;  but  the  habit  of 
discontent,  by  its  very  nature,  brings  unhappiness,  so 
that  the  connection  between  the  two  does  not  need  to 
be  pointed  out. 

It  is  as  if  at  a  table  there  were  several  dishes  of  sweet 
and  pleasant  food,  and  one  of  food  that  is  bitter  to  the 


Contentment.  5  5 

taste ;  and  a  person  should  take  of  the  bitter  food  and 
mingle  it  with  all  the  rest,  so  that  nothing  should  be 
agreeable,  and  should  then  complain  of  the  bitterness  of 
all.  So  the  habit  of  discontent  spoils  the  more  abun- 
dant good,  by  spreading  over  it  the  less  abundant  evil. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  however,  the  habit  of  discon- 
tent brings  certain  satisfactions  with  it. 

One  of  these  is  that  it  is  associated  with  a  certain  feel- 
ing of  superiority .  The  discontented  person  often  thinks 
that  great  dissatisfaction  with  that  to  which  other  persons 
submit  quietly,  shows  a  greater  delicacy  of  nature  than 
these  others  possess. 

Hans  Christian  Andersen  tells  a  story  of  a  queen  who 
wished  her  son  to  marry  only  a  true  princess ;  so  she. 
devised  a  test  by  which  the  true  princess  should  be 
known.  She  piled  on  the  bedstead  half  a  dozen  beds, 
and  under  the  lowest  of  these  she  placed  a  rose-leaf 
She  made  one  and  another,  for  whom  the  hand  of  the 
prince  was  sought,  sleep  on  the  bed  thus  prepared. 
When  they  came  down  in  the  morning  and  said  that 
they  had  slept  beautifully,  her  thought  was,  "  Ah,  you 
are  not  a  true  princess."  At  last,  one  came  down  in 
the  morning  saying  that  she  had  had  a  fearful  night,  and 
was  all  black  and  blue ;  for  there  was  something  hard 
in  the  bed  which  took  away  all  her  peace.  She  had 
felt  the  rose-leaf  under  all  the  feathers  that  buried  it ; 
and  by  this  the  queen  recognized  the  true  princess. 

There  are  those  who  think  that  to  be  troubled  by 
every  little  annoyance  shows  their  superiority,  as  if  they 
were  true  princes  and  princesses.  They  might  as  well 
be  proud  of  a  poor  digestion,  or  of  a  lame  leg. 


56  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

The  habit  of  discontent  has  another  satisfaction  some- 
what similar  to  this.  The  dissatisfied  person  has  enjoy- 
ment ill  tJiinking  that  his  siirrotmdings  are  very  far 
below  his  deserts.  He  has  such  a  sense  of  his  own  im- 
portance that  he  feels  injured  by  anything  that  is  not 
quite  to  his  satisfaction,  and  this  sense  of  injury  increases 
the  sense  of  personal  importance. 

This  kind  of  discontent  may  perhaps  be  lessened  if 
the  discontented  person  should  really  ask  himself  how 
it  is  that  he  has  deserved  so  much ;  what  he  is  or  what 
he  has  done,  by  which  he  can  claim  to  have  only 
pleasant  things  in  the  world,  while  so  many  have  so 
much  suffering. 

It  may  be  helpful  to  think  of  others,  good  and  true, 
who  cheerfully  bear  evils,  compared  with  which  those 
that  cause  the  discontent  are  as  nothing. 

The  habit  of  discontent  arises,  in  general,  from  the 
mistake  of  supposing  that  any  arrangement  of  outward 
things  can  in  itself  make  tis  happy.  Certainly,  it  is  eas- 
ier to  be  happier  in  some  circumstances  than  in  others ; 
but  none  in  themselves  can  bring  happiness. 

Every  one  should  learn  the  art  of  living,  and  this  art 
consists  in  being  able  to  use  the  circumstances  of  life, 
and  not  to  be  at  their  mercy ;  to  live  cheerfully  even 
when  everything  is  not  precisely  as  one  would  have  it. 

You  have  seen  the  pretty  wood  carvings  that  are 
made  in  Switzerland.  You  would  be  surprised  to  find 
with  how  simple  an  apparatus  they  are  made.  You  go 
into  the  workshop  and  expect  to  find  a  great  array  of  tools. 
You  find,  perhaps,  a  young  man  with  nothing  but  a  piece 


Contentment.  5  7 

of  wood  and  a  jack-knife.  So  out  of  the  simplest  ma- 
terials, and  with  the  poorest  tools,  many  have  carved 
beautiful  lives  which  have  been  a  joy  to  themselves 
and  those  about  them. 

But,  after  all,  this  is  very  much  a  matter  of  habit. 
We  see  what  we  look  for,  and  what  we  are  in  the  habit 
of  seeing.  One  used  to  correcting  proof,  for  instance, 
will  see  at  a  glance  a  page  disfigured  by  typographical 
errors  that  another  would  never  notice ;  simply  because 
he  has  made  it  his  habit  to  look  for  them. 

So,  one  that  has  formed  the  habit  of  seeing  unpleasant 
things  will  see  them  and  perhaps  will  see  little  "^se ; 
while  one  in  the  habit  of  paying  more  attention  to  what 
is  pleasant  than  to  what  is  unpleasant  will  find  what  is 
pleasant  at  almost  every  turn. 

There  are  few  things  that  are  more  important  for  the 
happiness  of  life  than  to  form  a  habit  of  taking  a  cheer- 
ful view  of  the  circumstances  in  which  one  is  placed. 


58  Ethics  for  Young  People, 

CHAPTER   XVIL 

AMBITION. 

The  habit  of  contentment  which  we  have  been  consid- 
ering may,  in  some  respects,  be  carried  too  far.  One 
may  be  too  contented.  While  we  should  make  the  best 
of  things  that  cannot  be  changed,  and  not  let  our  lives 
be  poisoned  by  discontent,  it  is  a  mistake  and  even  a 
fault  to  be  satisfied  with  what  can  without  loss  or  injury 
be  made  better. 

This  sort  of  contentment  sometimes  takes  the  form 
of  shiftlessness.  We  sometimes  pass  a  house  in  the 
country  where  the  gates  are  off  the  hinges,  the  fences 
are  broken,  the  grounds  are  full  of  weeds,  when  a  little 
labor  would  make  all  these  things  right.  We  think  that 
the  man  who  lives  there  takes  things  too  easily. 
He  is  too  contented.  He  needs  a  little  dissatisfaction 
to  spur  him  on. 

The  habit  of  mind  that  seeks  to  excel  is  called  am- 
bition. 

Ambition  may  be  a  very  good  or  a  very  bad  thing, 
according  to  its  object.  As  it  is  the  powder  in  the  gun 
that  sends  the  ball  whizzing  on  its  way  for  good  or  for 
evil,  so  it  is  ambition  that  gives  energy  and  movement 
to  the  life.  It  is  as  important  to  have  ambition  directed 
rightly  as  it  is  to  have  a  loaded  gun  pointed  in  the  right 
way ;  but  a  life  without  ambition*  is  of  little  more  use 
than  a  gun  without  powder, 


Ambition.  59 

A  true  ambition  may  be  directed  to  improving  the  cir- 
cumstances of  one's  life.  It  is  a  good  ambition  for  a 
poor  boy  to  think  that  he  will  work  hard,  and  will  some 
day  have  a  comfortable  home  for  himself  and  those 
whom  he  loves.  Even  the  ambition  to  be  rich  is  often 
a  worthy  one  ;  only  it  must  be  remembered  that  riches 
may  be  purchased  at  too  dear  a  price. 

It  is  a  worthy  ambition  to  do  well  whatever  one  does. 
This  is  an  ambition  which  nobody  should  be  without. 
Even  in  the  play-ground  one  should  have  an  ambition 
to  play  well,  to  be  a  good  pitcher  or  catcher,  or  to  excel 
in  whatever  part  one  has  to  play.  A  boy  who  is  care- 
less and  indifferent  in  a  game  of  ball  will  not  be  likely  to 
accomplish  much  anywhere. 

We  like  to  see  even  a  horse  ambitious,  and  not  mov- 
ing only  as  fast  as  the  whip  forces  it.  We  like  to  see  a 
workman  ambitious  to  turn  out  good  work,  whether  it 
be  a  stone  wall  that  he  is  building,  or  shoes  that  he  is 
making.  We  like  to  see  a  scholar  ambitious  to  take  a 
good  place  in  his  class,  and  to  have  his  lesson  perfectly. 

This  sort  of  ambition  makes  play  even  of  the  hardest 
work,  for  it  puts  life  into  everything  that  one  does ; 
while  the  lack  of  ambition  will  make  work  even  of  play,  for 
if  one  has  no  interest  to  do  well  what  one  is  doing,  then, 
even  base-ball  is  little  better  than  a  task. 

Above  all,  one  should  be  ambitious  to  do  the  best 
things. 

There  are  all  sorts  of  ambitions  in  life.  We  laugh  at 
the  small  boy  the  height  of  whose  ambition  is  to  strut 
through  the  street  with  a  cigarette  in  his  mouth.     We 


6o  Ethics  fo7'  Young  People. 

despise  the  young  man  whose  ambition  is  to  be  a  Httle 
faster  than  his  fellows.  We  have  also  a  contempt  for 
the  man  who  is  simply  trying  to  get  rich  while  he  cares 
nothing  for  the  good  opinion  of  his  fellow  citizens,  noth- 
ing for  honesty  or  honor,  or  for  the  needs  of  those  that 
he  can  help. 

We  admire  the  ambition  of  one  who  means  to  be  a 
manly  man,  to  be  a  kindly  friend,  to  get  on  in  the  world 
himself  and  to  help  others  get  on  in  it ;  who,  in  a  word, 
means  to  be  an  honorable  and  useful  citizen,  and  to 
make  the  world  better  and  happier. 


Education  as  a  Duty,  6i 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 

EDUCATION   AS    A   DUTY. 

We  have  seen  that  the  ambition  to  make  the  most 
and  the  best  of  one's  self  is  worthy  of  all  praise.  One 
of  the  most  important  helps  in  accomplishing  this  end 
is  education.  To  obtain  an  education  so  far  as  is  pos- 
sible is  thus  one  of  the  first  duties  which  one  owes  to 
one's  self. 

By  education,  I  mean  the  teaching  which  one  may 
receive  at  home,  at  school,  at  college  or  elsewhere,  and 
also  that  which  one  may  give  to  one's  self. 

Boys  and  girls  go  to  school,  —  some  because  they 
have  to,  and  some  as  a  mere  matter  of  course.  Perhaps 
very  few  ask  themselves  what  is  the  real  good  of  going 
to  school.     This  I  will  now  try  to  explain. 

Men  differ  from  the  lower  animals,  in  part,  because 
whatever  one  generation  of  men  gains  is  passed  on  to 
the  next,  so  that  each  starts  with  some  little  advantage 
over  the  one  that  went  before  it. 

Each  generation  of  animals,  so  far  as  we  now  know 
them,  starts  just  where  the  former  generation  started. 

That  is,  each  generation  of  birds  builds  its  nests  in 
the  same  way  in  which  birds  of  its  kind  have  built  them, 
so  far  as  we  know  anything  about  them.  So  the  bees 
make  honey  and  the  beavers  make  dams  just  as  their 
parents    and    grand-parents    have    done    for    centuries. 


62  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

There  was  probably  a  time  in  the  past  when  the  present 
skill  was  reached  by  slow  and  hardly  perceptible  ad- 
vance ;  but  so  far  as  our  definite  knowledge  goes,  there 
Kas  been  little,  if  any,  change  from  generation  to  gener- 
ation. 

There  is,  also,  this  difference  between  man  and  the 
lower  animals,  that  what  man  does  he  has  to  learn  how 
to  do,  while  the  animals  are  able  to  do  the  most  that 
they  accomplish  by  what  we  call  instinct ;  that  is,  with- 
out having  to  learn  how. 

Some  things,  indeed,  that  seem  most  natural  to  them, 
the  animals  have  to  learn.  Thus  the  birds  would  not 
sing  unless  they  heard  other  birds  sing.  If  a  bird  is 
brought  up  with  birds  of  a  different  kind,  it  will  often 
sing  their  song  instead  of  that  which  belongs  to  it. 
Thus  the  canary  has  to  be  put,  as  we  might  say,  to- 
school  to  an  older  canary  that  is  a  good  singer,  or  it 
could  not  sing  any  more  than  a  child  that  has  never 
been  taught.  But  most  things  that  the  animals  do,  they 
do  without  teaching.  I  suppose  the  bees  would  make 
honey,  and  the  birds  would  build  their  nests,  and  the 
beavers  would  make  dams,  even  if  they  had  never  seen 
these  things  done  by  their  parents. 

You  can  now  see  why  boys  and  girls  should  go  to 
school. 

It  is  in  order  that  they  may  get  the  best  experience  of  all 
the  generations  that  have  gone  before^  and  may  make  a 
fair  start  with  the  one  that  is  just  beginning.  A  boy  or 
girl  who  is  not  taught  the  most  important  of  these  re- 
sults of  past  ages,  might  just  as  well  have  been   born 


Education  as  a  Duty.  63 

hundreds  of  years  ago  in  a  savage  hut.  The  boy  or  girl 
who  is  unwilHng  to  be  taught  is  trying  to  throw  away  the 
advantage  of  Hving  to-day,  and  is  really  seeking  to  have 
no  better  start  in  life  than  a  savage  boy  or  girl  could 
have  that  was  born  hundreds  of  years  ago. 

I  have  said  that  the  boy  or  the  girl  is  taught  the  most 
important  results  of  all  the  experience  of  the  past.  Of 
course  it  is  very  little  that  can  be  thus  taught.  We  are, 
as  the  poet  Tennyson  says,  "  the  heirs  of  all  the  ages': "  ^ 
but  all  that  the  child  or  the  youth  can  be  taught  is  how 
to  get  all  these  great  possessions. 

Think  what  a  gain  it  is  simply  to  be  able  to  read,  and 
to  read  intelligently,  and  to  love  to  read.  As  soon  as 
one  has  accomplished  this,  all  the  treasures  of  the 
knowledge  and  the  thought  of  the  past  are  open  to  him. 
It  is  as  if  the  key  of  a  great  treasure-house  were  put 
into  his  hand  and  he  were  told  to  go  and  help  himself 
to  whatever  he  would  have. 

The  same  is  true  of  whatever  else  is  taught  at  school. 
Each  study  well  pursued  puts  a  key  into  the  hand  of  the 
scholar,  by  which  he  may  unlock  one  of  the  doors  of 
the  world,  which  would  otherwise  be  closed  to  him. 

But  after  all,  the  mind  itself  is  the  best  tool ;  and 
the  best  thing  that  the  scholar  learns  at  school  is  to  use 
his  mind. 

'      In  Locksley  Ilall. 


64  Ethics  for  Young  People. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

SELF-EDUCATION   AS   A   DUTY. 

We  hear,  often,  of  self-educated  men.  By  these  words 
are  meant  men  who  had  Httle  advantage  of  instruction 
in  early  life,  but  who,  by  making  the  most  of  themselves 
and  of  the  opportunities  they  had,  have~  reached,  often, 
positions  of  great  honor  and  usefulness.  In  our  country 
we  have  had  many  such  men,  of  whom  President  Lincoln 
may  serve  as  a  striking  example. 

But,  in  fact,  all  men  who  amount  to  anything  are  in  a 
sense  self-made  men.  The  best  teachers  in  the  world 
cannot  make  a  youth  amount  to  anything,  unless  he 
takes  the  matter  into  his  own  hands,  and  works  with 
them. 

In  the  power  to  train  himself,  man  differs  from  most 
lower  animals.  You  have  to  train  a  horse.  The  horse 
does  very  little  towards  his  own  training,  except  to  be 
docile  in  the  hands  of  his  master.  Some  animals,  in- 
deed, do  very  much  more  than  this  and  try  to  train 
themselves.  An  elephant  is  sometimes  found  practising 
by  himself  the  lessons  he  has  been  taught;  and  a  parrot 
will  drill  itself,  trying  to  get  the  words  which  its  owner 
wants  to  teach  it.  These  are,  however,  exceptional 
cases. 

Self-education  lies  outside  the  school-room  as  well  as 
in  it.  There  is  no  part  of  the  nature  which  one  ought 
not  to  try  to  educate. 


Self- Education  as  a  Duty.  65 

TJie  body  should  be  educated.  The  limbs  should  be 
made  strong  and  supple.  Most  of  us  do  not  know  even 
how  to  stand  or  to  walk.  See  a  civilian  stand  or  walk 
by  the  side  of  a  soldier,  and  how  crooked  and  lumpish 
he  almost  always  appears.  The  soldier  has  learned 
how  to  carry  himself;  the  civilian  has  not.  Out-of-door 
games  do  much  for  such  training,  —  rowing  and  running 
and  ball  and  the  rest.  Then  there  is  the  gymnasium 
which  develops  the  form  regularly  and  gives  the  man  the 
mastery  of  himself. 

The  senses  should  be  trained  to  sharpness  and  accuracy. 
Now  and  then,  by  way  of  advertisement,  a  prize  is 
offered  to  the  person  who  guesses  most  nearly  the 
amount  held  by  a  big  teapot,  or  some  other  vessel  of 
the  same  sort.  People  guess  wildly  and  for  the  most 
part  have  no  idea  what  the  amount  should  be.  Some- 
thing like  this,  in  a  systematic  way,  would  be  good 
training  for  every  one. 

A  boy  should  not  think  that  he  has  learned  the  tables 
of  weights  and  measures  till  he  has  some  idea  what  the 
words  really  mean.  He  should  be  able  to  tell  whether 
the  weight  that  he  holds  is  a  pound,  whether  the  space 
that  he  marks  off  is  a  foot. 

You  could  easily  make  a  game  out  of  such  training, 
with  prizes  or  whatever  else  would  give  interest  to  it. 
Who  can  tell  most  correctly  how  many  acres  there  are 
in  such  a  field,  or  when  he  has  walked  a  mile?  All  this 
should  be  tried  till  it  is  no  longer  mere  guessing,  but 
one  knows  something  of  what  he  is  talking  about. 

Then,  too,  tlie  senses    sJiould   be    trained  to  observe. 


66  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

How  many  go  through  the  world  without  seeing  any- 
thing accurately  !  I  have  already  suggested  that  it  is  a 
good  plan  to  study  some  science,  so  that  one  will  get 
into  the  habit  of  noticing  what  is  before  him. 

The  hands,  too,  should  be  trained  to  skill.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  have  the  mastery  of  tools.  If  one  has^  only  a 
jack-knife,  it  is  a  great  thing  to  be  able  to  make  some- 
thing definite  with  it,  and  not  merely  to  whittle  a  stick 
into  nothing  but  whittlings. 

It  is  still  more  importa7it  to  cultivate  the  mind.  Any- 
body who  can  read  can  do  this.  I  shall  speak  of  this 
again  later,  so  I  will  not  dwell  upon  it  now. 

One  should  not  be  afraid  to  seek  information  and 
help  from  the  older  persons  that  one  is  with.  Espe- 
cially in  the  school,  one  should  consider  the  teacher  as  a 
friend,  who  is  ready  and  eager  to  help,  and  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  help. 

There  is  another  matter  that  we  may  often  forget,  and 
that  is  the  training  of  the  feelings.  One  who  is  lazy, 
or  quarrelsome,  or  selfish,  ought  to  try  very  hard  to 
make  something  different  of  himself. 

In  a  word,  you  should  consider  what  sort  of  a  man 
you  would  like  to  be.  Think  of  those  you  have  known, 
or  those  of  whom  you  have  read  or  heard,  and  when  you 
make  up  your  mind  what  sort  of  a  man  you  would  like 
to  be,  take  yourself  in  hand,  and  try  to  make  of  yourself 
such  a  person.  Treat  yourself  as  if  you  were  somebody 
else  that  you  had  charge  of,  and  see  what  a  good  training- 
master  you  can  be. 


Self-Respect.  6/ 


CHAPTER   XX. 

SELF-RESPECT. 

Self-respect  is  the  foundation  of  all  true  manliness 
and  womanliness.  When  a  person  has  lost  this,  there  is 
htde  that  can  be  done  for  him.  / 

Self-respect  is  largely  the  basis  of  the  virtues  that  we 
have  been  considering.  Ambition,  courage,  fortitude, 
and  other  forms  of  self-control,  imply  that  a  person  has 
such  respect  for  himself  that  he  likes  to  fill  his  place 
well,  and  to  hold  his  own  in  the  world.  It  is  because 
the  coward  lacks  self-cespect  that  he  is  willing  to  flee. 
It  is  self-respect  that  inspires  fortitude,  and  prevents 
one  from  ignominiously  collapsing  in  the  presence  of 
what  is  painful  or  unpleasant. 

Self-respect  is  a  great  help  in  meeting  and  bearing 
whatever  mortifies  our  vanity,  or  tempts  to  envy  and 
jealousy. 

Vanity  finds  its  delight  solely  in  the  good  opinion  of  ] 
others ;  Self-respect  is,  to  a  great  degree,  independent  of  \ 
the  opinion  of  others. 

We  should,  up  to  a  certain  point,  seek  the  good 
opinion  of  those  about  us;  and  it  is  natural  to  enjoy  the 
possession  of  it.  Self-respect,  however,  will  not  stoop 
to  any  meanness  to  gain  it,  and  though  the  person  who 
respects  himself  may  be  troubled  when  this  good  opin- 
ion is  lost  without  good  cause,  he  will  not  fret  too  much 


68  Ethics  for  Young  People, 

about  it.  There  is  something  that  is  to  him  more  im- 
portant than  the  good-will  of  others  ;  that  is  his  respect 
for  himself 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  there  is  no  unfailing 
recipe  against  trouble  in  the  world.  The  good  person  is 
not  always  happy.  Even  religion  does  not  undertake  to 
make  men  perfectly  happy  in  the  world.  It  helps  them 
to  bear  trouble,  and  to  get  some  higher  good  out  of  it. 
Such  help  implies  that  there  is  still  trouble  to  be  borne. 

Thus  the  self-respecting  person  may  be  pained  by 
dislike  and  neglect;  but  he  will  not  feel  them  as  a 
person  does  whose  only  support  is  in  the  good  opinion 
of  other  people. 

Self-respect  is  a  great  help  against  envy  and  jealousy. 
How  much  there  is  to  provoke  to  jealousy,  even  among 
young  people  at  school.  One  scholar  stands  higher  in 
the  class ;  another  has  finer  clothes ;  another  is  more 
popular  among  the  other  scholars. 

An  envious  or  jealous  person  will  find  in  all  this  the 
source  of  great  unhappiness.  He  will  perhaps  hate  his 
rival  who  is  preferred,  and  hate  the  teacher  or  the 
companions  who  give  the  preference.  He  will  perhaps 
become  discouraged  or  ill-tempered. 

Instead  of  trying  to  tell  you  how  a  self-respecting 
boy  or  girl  would  meet  all  this,  I  will  tell  you  how  a 
self-respecting  boy  did  meet  it. 

One  of  the  most  brilliant  writers  of  France  has  pub- 
lished a  book,  which  is,  he  tells  us,  in  its  first  part,  the 
story  of  his  own  life.^     The  hero  of  the  story,  in  whom 

'  "  Le  petit  Chose,"  by  Alphonse  iJaudet. 


Self-Respect.  69 

the  author  represents  himself,  is  a  poor  boy,  who 
Hved  in  the  city  of  Lyons,  in  France.  He  obtained 
an  opportunity  to  attend,  without  expense,  a  school 
made  up  mostly  of  boys  from  rich  families.  He  went 
wearing  a  blouse,  such  as  is  often  worn  by  the  poorer 
men  and  boys  in  France.  When  he  entered  the  school- 
room, his  first  glance  showed  that  his  was  the  only  blouse 
there.  He  saw  the  boys  tittering,  and  from  every  side 
he  heard  whispered,  "  He  has  come  in  a  blouse  !  "  As 
days  went  on,  even  the  master  was  mean  enough  to  take 
part  against  him  because  he  was  poor.  The  master 
never  called  him  by  his  name.  When  he  spoke  to  him 
it  was,  •'  Come  here,  What's-your-name,"  or,  "  What 
are  you  about,  What's-your-name?"  Another  boy 
might,  as  I  have  said,  have  become  discouraged, 
envious,  jealous,  and  very  unhappy.  But  see  what  this 
boy,  who  respected  himself,  did.  He  said  to  himself, 
"  If  I  am  to  take  any  position  in  this  school  /  must 
work  twice  as  hard  as  the  other  boys!'  This  he  did. 
Later,  when  he  was  a  great  man,  we  may  imagine  with 
what  pleasure  and  pride  he  placed,  as  the  title  of  the 
book  which  was  the  story  of  his  life,  the  words  which 
the  master  had  so  often  addressed  to  him  in  contempt. 
This  title  we  may  translate  freely  into  "  Little  What's- 
his-name." 

A  person  who  respects  himself  will  not  stoop  to  what 
is  mean  or  dishonorable.  If  his  sense  of  duty  is  not 
strong  enough  to  preserve  him  from  such  things,  his 
self-respect  will  keep  him  from  them.  He  will  be 
ashamed  to  do  a  dishonorable  thing. 


J70  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

We  can  now  compare,  better  than  we  could  have 
done  before,  self-respect  with  pride. 

Self-respect  is  a  kind  of  pride.  It  is  the  good  pride. 
The  bad  pride  is  that  which  compares  one's  self  with 
others,  and  looks  down  upon  them. 

Pride  differs  from  vanity,  in  that  the  proud  man  has 
such  contempt  of  others  that  he  does  not  care  very 
much  what  they  think  of  him. 

When  I  was  a  very  small  boy,  a  lady  was  talking  with 
me  about  "  easily  besetting  sins."  She  said  that  her 
besetting  sin  was  pride.  I  looked  at  her  in  innocent 
wonder  and  exclaimed,  ''  Why,  what  have  you  to  be 
proud  of  ?  "  I  saw  at  once  by  her  confusion  that  I 
had  made  a  very  impudent  and  unlucky  speech.  We 
cannot  ask  this  question  of  others ;  but  if  anyone  who 
is  disposed  to  be  proud  should  ask  himself  the  question, 
'*  What  have  you  to  be  proud  of?  "  and  answer  it  truly, 
it  might  do  him  good. 

Self-respect  is  a  pride  that  makes  no  comparison  with 
others.  The  man  who  respects  himself  is  simply 
ashamed  to  do  anything  that  would  be  unworthy  of 
him. 

He  respects  himself  as  he  would  have  others  respect 
him.  One  who  does  not  respect  himself  cannot  expect 
to  be  respected  by  others. 


Self-Respect.  71 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

SELF-RESPECT    (^continued). 

Respect  for  one's  self  is  shown  in  many  ways  besides 
those  that  have  been  mentioned.  It  is  seen,  for  instance, 
in  neatness  or  cleanHness. 

It  is  pleasant  to  see  a  young  woman,  however  poor 
she  may  be,  never  forgetting  to  keep  herself  clean  and 
neat.  Even  a  little  personal  adornment,  however  simple, 
shows  that,  in  spite  of  difficult  circumstances,  she  has 
not  lost  her  self-respect. 

It  is  unpleasant  to  see  a  dirty  child,  although  it  is  not 
the  child's  fault.  You  can  see,  however,  from  the  dis- 
gust that  you  have  in  seeing  a  dirty  child,  how  disgust- 
ing a  filthy  person  always  is. 

Even  most  animals  like  to  keep  clean.  We  are  some- 
times disgusted  with  the  filth  in  which  the  hog  lives ; 
but  that  is  not  its  fault,  but  its  owner's.  Even  a  hog 
would  keep  clean  if  it  could.  I  knew  of  one  that  had 
a  sleeping-room  in  the  barn,  from  which  an  opening 
led  into  a  little  yard  outside.  This  yard  was  like  other 
pig-sties ;  but  the  sleeping-room  was  kept  perfectly 
neat.  The  straw  which  was  given  it  for  a  bed,  it  cut  up 
with  its  teeth  so  that  it  was  fine  and  soft.  All  this  it 
kept  swept,  I  do  not  know  how,  neatly  in  a  corner, 
where  it  could  lie  with  its  nose  at  the  opening  so  as  to 
get  the  freshest  air  possible.     When   I  see  pigs  living 


7 2  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

in  filth,  I  think  of  this  one  and  pity  them ;  for  I  know 
that  they  would  be  neat  if  they  could.  From  this  it 
appears  that  a  person  who  does  not  like  to  keep  clean  is 
worse  even  than  a  pig. 

While  the  hog,  from  the  way  in  which  men  make 
him  live,  stands,  in  spite  of  himself,  as  an  illustration  of 
the  disgusting  nature  of  filthiness,  the  cat  may  serve 
as  an  example  of  personal  cleanliness.  How  the  cat 
likes  to  wash  herself  with  her  tongue  !  A  poor  way,  we 
should  think;  but  it  is  her  only  way,  of  keeping  clean. 

A  cat  was  not  well  and  needed  medicine.  She  re- 
fused to  take  it,  just  as  some  children  do.  She  had, 
however,  a  better  excuse  than  they,  for  no  one  could 
tell  her  that  it  was  for  her  good.  She  did  not  like  it, 
and  saw  no  reason  why  she  should  take  it.  A  bright  girl, 
fresh  from  Ireland,  exclaimed,  ''  Give  me  some  grease 
and  I  will  make  her  take  it !  "  She  mixed  the  medicine 
with  the  grease,  and  smouched  it  over  the  cat's  fur. 
The  cat  disliked  the  taste,  but  she  disliked  more  to  have 
her  fur  soiled,  so  she  licked  it  all  off,  and  was  cured  in 
spite  of  herself. 

Neatness  and  cleanliness,  by  showing  the  self-respect  of 
the  person  who  is  neat  and  clean,  go  far  to  win  for 
him  the  respect  of  others.  When  a  young  man  or 
woman  seeks  a  position  of  any  kind,  there  is  hardly  any- 
thing that  could  harm  the  chance  of  success  more  than 
an  untidy  and  uncleanly  appearance. 

A  self-respecting  person  should  be  ashamed  to  live  in 
an  uncleanly  or  untidy  house. 

Cleanliness  here  has  also  its  practical  side.      Typhoid 


Self-Respect.  73 

fever,  and  other  terrible  diseases,  are  caused,  as  we  now 
know,  by  little  living  things,  far  too  small  to  be  seen 
except  with  the  help  of  the  microscope,  that  get  into  the 
body  and  work  these  evils.  These  little  beings  are  bred 
to  a  large  extent  in  filth.  We  see  this  illustrated  on  a 
large  scale  by  the  fact  that  when  a  pestilence  visits  a 
community,  it  is  the  lack  of  cleanliness  in  certain  local- 
ities that  does  the  most  to  invite  it,  and  to  stimulate  its 
ravages. 

Much  worse  than  outward  filth  is  inward  impurity. 
No  person  with  any  self-respect  would  stoop  to  this. 
Impure  thoughts  are  far  more  disgusting  than  unclean 
face  and  hands. 

How  would  a  person  who  encourages  impure 
thoughts  feel  if  his  mind  were  suddenly  thrown  open  to 
the  world,  so  that  all  could  see  them?  One  should 
never  do  or  think  what  he  would  be  ashamed  to  have 
those  about  him  know. 

Indeed,  the  exposure  that  was  suggested  in  the  last 
paragraph  takes  place  up  to  a  certain  degree.  One 
who  is  given  to  this  kind  of  thought  tends  to  show  the 
effect  of  it,  at  last,  in  his  face.  He  thinks  that  nobody 
suspects  ;  but  those  who  have  insight  and  delicate  feeling 
see  what  the  condition  of  his  mind  is,  and  have  a  loath- 
ing such  as  few  other  things  can  cause. 

There  are  many  other  things  which  a  feeling  of  self- 
respect  leads  one  to  avoid.  Indeed  it  is  the  enemy  of 
all  the  vices  and  the  encourager  of  all  the  virtues,  as  it 
is  the  heart  and  soul  of  manliness. 


74  Ethics  for  Young  People. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

SELF-CONTROL. 

One  of  the  most  important  lessons  which  one  has  to 
learn  is  that  of  self-control. 

The  person  who  is  without  self-control  does  at  every 
moment  just  what  he  feels  like  doing.  He  will  speak 
the  words  that  come  into  his  mind,  no  matter  how  cruel 
or  unkind  they  may  be.  He  will  eat  what  he  feels  like 
eating,  and  drink  what  he  feels  like  drinking,  no  matter 
how  harmful  the  thing  is. 

He  is  like  anything  else  that  is  untrained ;  like  a 
troublesome  child,  or  a  dog  that  has  never  learned  to 
mind.  Only  in  this  case  it  is  himself  that  the  person 
has  never  taught  to  obey. 

It  is  worth  while,  sometimes,  to  keep  from  doing 
something  that  is  not  harmful,  but  very  tempting,  simply 
to  see  that  one  has  this  mastery  of  one's  self:  just  as  we 
forbid  a  dog  that  we  are  training  to  do  this  or  that;  not 
that  there  is  any  harm  in  the  thing,  but  so  that  he  may 
learn  to  mind  our  word. 

I  have  seen  a  dog  sit  up  with  a  piece  of  meat  on  his 
nose,  and  make  no  motion  to  -eat  it  until  the  word  of 
command  was  given.  Such  a  dog  is  in  fine  training.  We 
ought  to  have  the  same  mastery  over  ourselves  that  the 
owner  has  over  his  dog.  One  who  has  not  this  mastery 
is  at  the  mercy  of  anything.     He  is  like   one  who  is 


Self-ControL  75 

driving  a  horse  that  is  not  well  broken.  At  the  critical 
moment  the  horse  may  start,  and  dart  to  one  side,  or 
run ;  and  he  who  seems  to  be  the  driver,  because  he 
holds  the  reins,  may  be  dashed  to  the  ground. 

Long  ages  ago,  in  both  Greece  and  India,  philoso- 
phers compared  the  senses  to  horses  well  or  ill-trained ; 
and  the  comparison  may  be  helpful  to  us  now. 

The  habit  of  eating  everything  that  comes  in  one's 
way  if  it  tempts  the  taste,  and  of  eating  too  much,  is 
called  gluttony.  This  often  does  much  to  destroy  the 
health  ;  as  well  as,  by  the  habit  of  greediness,  to  prepare 
one  for  all  kinds  of  loathsome  vices  when  one  is  older. 

Still  more  dangerous  is  the  habit  of  drinking  whatever 
tempts  the  taste.  This,  when  what  is  so  drunk  is  in- 
toxicating liquor,  is  called  intemperance. 

Intemperance  is  one  of  the  most  contemptible  and 
loathsome  habits  into  which  one  may  fall.  It  is  also  one 
of  the  most  dangerous.  It  springs  from  the  lack  of 
self-control,  and  it  destroys  what  little  self-control  may 
still  exist. 

A  person  who  "  drinks  "  gives  up  all  self-command. 
He  is  like  a  man  who,  in  the  midst  of  a  perilous  region, 
throws  the  reins  over  his  horse's  back  and  lets  him  take 
what  course  he  will.  The  best  tempered  man,  when  he 
has  drunk  too  much,  may  become  quarrelsome ;  the 
kindest  hearted  one  may  become  brutal  and  cruel ;  the 
most  sensible  one  may  become  a  fool ;  and  all  become 
alike  ridiculous. 

One  great  peril  about  this  matter  of  drink  is  that  one 
who  indulges  in  it  may  reach  a  point  where  he  has  no 


j6  Ethics  for  Yotuig  People. 

mastery  of  himself .  He  may  think  that  he  will  take  a 
glass  now  and  then  and  be  none  the  worse.  He  does  it 
because  a  friend  offers  it,  or  because  he  thinks  he  must 
treat  a  friend,  or  because  others  do,  or  because  he  is  be- 
g^'nning  to  like  it ;  and,  all  at  once,  before  he  has  dreamed 
that  it  was  possible,  the  drunkard's  thirst  may  be  kindled, 
before  which  he  feels  himself  powerless. 

I  suppose  that  there  is  nothing  more  terrible  than  the 
drunkard's  thirst.  It  is  stronger  than  his  love  for  his 
parents  or  his  wife  or  his  children,  stronger  than  his  love 
of  respectability,  stronger  than  his  dread  of  poverty  or 
ridicule.  It  is  a  burning  thirst,  terrible  in  its  torment  and 
never  to  be  satisfied  in  its  demands. 

In  some,  this  thirst  is  kindled  much  more  easily  than 
in  others,  but  there  are  none  who  are  wholly  free  from 
the  peril  of  it,  and  no  one  can  tell  in  advance  how  soon 
his  turn  may  come.  He  may  laugh  at  another  who  has 
fallen,  but  at  the  next  moment  he  may  find  himself  at  the 
mercy  of  this  raging  demon. 

Far  above  the  falls  of  Niagara,  one  may  row  down 
the  river  and  turn  back  when  he  will.  But  as  he  goes 
down  further,  there  comes  a  point  beyond  which  he  can- 
not turn  back.  The  trouble  is  that  he  can  never  know 
when  he  is  reaching  that  point.  He  thinks  that  he  is 
safe  and  will  turn  back :  but  the  stream  has  him  in  its 
power,  and  hurries  him  on,  down  towards  the  terrible 
plunge  of  the  cataract.  So  it  is  when  one  begins  to 
drink  intoxicating  liquor.  He  cannot  tell  in  advance 
when  the  point  is  reached  beyond  which  he  is  helpless. 

I  do  not  say  that  it  is  ever  too  late  for  the  drunkard 


Self- Control.  yy 

to  reform  but,  if  he  does,  it  may  be  at  the  cost  of  a 
struggle  more  terrible  than  we  can  conceive,  and  in 
which  few  have  the  strength  and  the  resolution  to  win. 

For  boys  and  young  men,  at  least,  who  are  exposed 
to  temptation,  and  all  boys  and  young  men  are  liable  to 
be  so  exposed,  the  only  safe  way  is  to  taste  nothing  that 
will  intoxicate.  In  this  way  one  is  safe.  But  if  one 
takes  such  drink,  however  rarely  at  first,  he  may  find 
himself  drawn  into  the  deadly  current. 

One  may  laugh  at  this  peril,  but  it  is  like  laughing  at 
the  danger  from  some  contagious  disease.  One  may 
say  in  his  pride  of  health,  **I  am  safe,"  and  the  next 
moment  the  disease  may  have  taken  possession  of  his 
body. 


78  Ethics  for  Young  People. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

SELF-RELIANCE. 

It  is  important  to  learn  early  to  rely  upon  yourself; 
for  little  has  been  done  in  the  world  by  those  who  are 
always  looking  out  for  some  one  to  help  them. 

We  must  be  on  our  guard  not  to  confound  self-reli- 
ance with  self-conceit,  yet  the  difference  between  the  two 
cannot  easily  be  defined  in  words. 

The  difference  is  something  like  that  between  bravery 
and  foolhardiness,  which  was  spoken  of  in  an  earlier 
chapter.' 

The  self-conceited  person  takes  it  for  granted  that  he 
is  superior  to  others.  The  self-conceited  girl  thinks 
that  she  is  handsomer,  more  graceful,  or  more  talented, 
than  other  girls,  that  her  work  is  nicer,  or  that  her  com- 
position shows  more  genius.  Whatever  is  to  be  done, 
she  thinks  that  she  can  do  it  better  than  another,  and 
that  her  way  is  always  the  best.  The  self-conceited  boy 
looks  upon  himself  and  his  exploits  in  the  same  way. 
It  is  hard  to  correct  self-conceit,  because  all  that  such 
self-satisfied  persons  do  seems  to  them  so  nearly  perfect 
that  they  are  liable  to  grow  more  and  more  conceited. 

It  is  one  advantage  of  going  to  school  that  girls  and 
boys  are  apt  to  have  the  conceit  more  or  less  taken  out 
of  them,  because  they  are  often  thrown  among  others 

*  See  chapter  Xll, 


Self-Reliance.  79 

who  are  superior  to  them,  and  because  their  companions 
have  httle  patience  with  such  pretence. 

Self-reliance  is  very  different  from  self-conceit.  The 
self-reliant  person  is  often  very  modest.  He  does  not  say 
about  anything  that  is  to  be  done,  "  I  am  so  strong  and 
wise  that  I  can  do  it."  He  says,  "  I  will  try,  and  if  pa- 
tience and  hard  work  will  do  it,  it  shall  be  done." 

One  way  in  which  a  person  may  become  self-reliant, 
is  never  to  seek  or  accept  help  till  he  has  fairly  tried 
what  can  be  done  without  it. 

Some  scholars,  if  they  come  to  a  problem  that  seems 
hard,  run  at  once  to  the  teacher,  or  an  older  friend, 
or  perhaps  even  to  another  scholar,  who  is  brighter  or 
more  self-reliant  than  themselves,  in  order  to  be  told 
how  to  do  it.  Always  try  it  yourself.  Even  if  it  is  noth- 
ing more  important  than  a  conundrum,  do  not  wish 
somebody  to  tell  you  the  answer  till  you  have  fairly 
tried  to  conquer  it. 

It  is  a  pleasant  feeling  that  comes  from  having  done 
a  difficult  thing  one's  self,  a  feeling  that  those  never 
have  who  are  helped  out  of  every  hard  place. 

It  is  like  the  feeling  that  one  has  after  having  climbed 
a  steep  mountain.  There  is  a  healthy  pride  in  having 
conquered  the  difficulty  of  the  ascent.  There  is  also 
the  comfortable  feeling  that  comes  when  the  muscles 
have  been  used  without  being  unduly  strained.  There 
is  a  similar  pleasant  sensation  when  the  mind  has  been 
exerted  successfully,  in  learning,  for  instance,  a  difficult 
task,  or  solving  a  hard  problem. 

One   who   has   overcome   one   difficulty   is    ready  to 


8o  Ethics  for  Yoimg  People. 

meet  the  next  with  confidence  that  it,  too,  will  yield  to 
his  attempt. 

See  how  much  such  a  person  has  gained.  In  later 
life,  while  others  are  hesitating  what  to  do,  or  whether 
to  do  anything,  he  goes  forward  and  accomplishes  what 
he  undertakes. 

It  is  often  better  to  do  a  thing  by  a  way  that  is  not 
the  very  best  than  not  to  do  it  at  all. 

Self-reliance  is  as  important  in  thought  as  it  is  in 
action. 

Some  people  find  it  hard  to  make  up  their  minds. 
They  run  to  one  and  another  to  get  advice.  Perhaps 
it  is  in  regard  to  nothing  more  important  than  the  color 
of  a  dress.  Perhaps  the  bits  of  advice  which  they  re- 
ceive conflict  with  one  another ;  then  such  people  are 
worse  off  than  they  were  before. 

No  person  knows  better  the  real  value  of  advice  than 
he  who  is  self-reliant.  He  has  measured  his  own  pow- 
ers so  often  that  he  knows  where  he  needs  help. 

When  advice  comes  from  those  who  have  wisdom 
and  experience,  it  is  to  be  taken  thankfully. 

So  far  as  people  in  general  are  concerned,  it  is  often 
hard  for  them  to  put  themselves  into  your  place  suffi- 
ciently to  give  the  advice  that  you  really  need.  The 
very  fact  of  having  to  do  a  thing  often  suggests  the 
best  way  of  doing  it.  Your  own  thought  in  regard  to 
anything  that  you  have  to  do,  is  thus  often  better  than 
that  of  the  companion  whose  advice  you  seek. 

It  is  pleasant,  and  sometimes  helpful,  to  talk  over  our 
plans  with  a  friend ;  but  we  must  remember  that  it  is 
we  ourselves  who  must  make  the  decision. 


Self -Reliance.  8t 

Did  you  ever  think  why  it  is  that  so  many  of  the 
great  men  of  our  country  are  found  among  those  who 
began  hfe  in  hardship  and  poverty?  Many  of  them 
grew  up  in  what  was,  when  they  were  young,  the  west- 
ern frontier,  where  they  had  to  work  hard ;  where  they 
had  no  schools,  and  few  comforts  and  conveniences.  They 
have  come  from  circumstances  that  seemed  wholly  dis- 
couraging, and  have  become  presidents,  judges,  generals, 
or  millionaires. 

You  would  find  it  interesting  to  put  down  the  names 
of  those  that  have  reached  such  success  from  such  hard 
beginnings,  and  keep  a  list  of  them.  If  you  are  careful 
to  learn  about  such  persons,  and  to  write  down  their 
names,  you  will  be  astonished  to  see  how  long  your  list 
will  become.  Such  a  list  you  could  keep  as  a  special 
division  in  the  book  of  heroes  of  which  I  have  spoken 
in  another  place.^ 

Many  who  were  thus  situated  in  their  youth  did  not 
reach  such  prominent  positions.  They  became  often, 
however,  enterprising  and  useful  citizens.  They  will 
not  be  added  to  your  list,  but  they  lived  no  less  success- 
ful, and  perhaps  happier,  lives  than  those  whose  names 
have  become  familiar  to  the  world.  One  reason  why  so 
many  that  had  such  an  unpromising  beginning  have  won 
great  success  is,  that  because  they  had  so  few  helps  they 
were  forced  to  help  themselves.  They  thus  became 
self-reliant.  When  they  went  out  into  the  world  they 
went  straight  ahead.     Without  waiting  for  any  one  to 


'  See  page  51. 


82  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

make  a  place  for  them,  they  made  a  place  for  them- 
selves. Without  waiting  for  any  one  to  do  for  them, 
they  did  for  themselves.  Without  waiting  for  people  to 
advise  them,  they  trusted  themselves.  They  were 
prompt,  energetic  and  sensible.  Thus  people  trusted 
them  and  honored  them. 

Though  you  have  the  helps  that  such  men  were 
forced  to  do  without,  yet  you  can  cultivate  the  habit 
of  self-reliance.  You  can  solve  your  own  problems,  do 
your  own  tasks,  and  meet  your  own  difficulties ;  and 
thus  you,  too,  can  be  preparing  to  do  your  own  part  in 
the  world. 

When  I  was  a  young  man,  I  was  with  a  friend  on  the 
shore  of  a  lake  in  the  Maine  woods.  We  wanted  to 
fish ;  we  found  a  boy,  perhaps  ten  years  old,  who  got  a 
boat  for  us,  showed  us  where  the  best  place  to  fish  was, 
pulled  with  us  out  on  the  lake,  and  made  himself  very 
serviceable.  When  we  had  finished,  we  offered  him 
some  money  for  the  boat  and  his  help.  He  refused  to 
take  it.  He  straightened  himself  up  and  said,  **  I 
wanted  to  fish  myself." 

I  have  often  thought  of  that  manly  boy,  self-reliant 
and  contented  with  himself.  He  did  not  want  favors 
that  he  did  not  need  from  strangers  whom  he  did  not 
know. 

All  this  reminds  me  of  a  fable  which  I  read  when  I  was 
a  boy,  and  which  I  have  remembered  ever  since :  — 
Some  larks  had  a  nest  in  a  field  of  grain.  One  evening 
the  old  larks  coming  home  found  the  young  ones  in 
great  terror.     "  We  must  leave  our  nest  at  once,"  they 


Self- Reliance.  83 

cried.  Then  they  related  how  they  had  heard  the 
farmer  say  that  he  must  get  his  neighbors  to  come  the 
next  day  to  help  him  reap  his  field.  "  Oh  !  "  cried 
the  old  birds,  ''  If  that  is  all,  we  may  rest  quietly  in  our 
nest."  The  next  evening  the  young  birds  were  found 
again  in  a  state  of  terror.  The  farmer,  it  seems, 
was  angry  because  his  neighbors  had  not  come,  and 
had  said  that  he  should  get  his  relatives  to  come  the 
next  day  and  help  him.  The  old  birds  took  the  news 
easily,  and  said  there  was  nothing  to  fear  yet.  The 
next  evening  the  young  birds  were  very  cheerful. 
"  Have  you  heard  nothing  to-day?  "  asked  the  old  ones. 
"  Nothing  important,"  answered  the  young.  *'  It  is 
only  that  the  farmer  was  again  angry  because  his  rela- 
tives also  had  failed  him,  and  he  said  to  his  sons,  *  Since 
neither  our  neighbors  nor  our  relations  will  help  us,  we 
must  take  hold  to-morrow  and  do  it  ourselves.'  "  The 
old  birds  were  excited  this  time.  They  said,  **  We 
must  leave  our  nest  to-night.  When  a  man  decides  to 
to  do  a  thing  for  himself,  and  to  do  it  at  once,  you 
may  be  pretty  sure  that  it  will  be  done." 


84  Ethics  for   Young  People 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

RELATIONS    TO    OTHERS. 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  chiefly  what  may  be 
called  the  duties  that  one  owes  to  one's  self.  Nearly 
all  that  has  been  said  would  be  true  if  one  lived  inde- 
pendently of  all  others,  and  had  to  seek  only  a  peaceful 
and  happy  life. 

But  we  do  not  live  thus  independently.  Every  one 
of  us  is  united  with  others.  He  is  a  member  of  a 
family.  He  belongs  to  the  town,  to  the  state,  to  the 
nation,  to  the  whole  world  of  persons.  He  is  connected 
with  the  past  and  the  future  as  well  as  the  present. 

It  has  been  sometimes  thought  that  society  was 
formed  by  the  free  choice  of  men  who  had  before  been 
independent,  living  each  for  himself,  but  who  gave  up 
a  part  of  their  liberty  for  the  sake  of  the  protection  and 
aid  that  come  from  living  with  others.  We  now  know 
that  from  the  earliest  times  men  have  lived  in  social  re- 
lations with  one  another. 

Indeed,  man  would  be  nothing  if  there  were  taken 
from  him  what  he  has  received,  and  what  he  is  always 
receiving,  from  the  community  in  which  he  lives. 

Did  you  ever  lose  yourself  in  the  city  or  in  the 
woods?  If  you  ever  did,  you  can  understand  how 
dependent  we  all  are  upon  those  with  whom  we  live. 

It  is  a  very  strange  and  painful  feeling  that  one 
has  when  he  is  lost  in  a  city ;    especially  if  one  is  with- 


Relations  to  Others.  85 

out  money.  One  who  is  thus  lost  sees  only  strange 
streets,  strange  buildings,  and  strange  people.  If  he 
seeks  food  or  shelter,  he  is  looked  at  coldly.  He  has 
stepped  out  of  his  place  in  the  world,  and  is  helpless 
and  homeless,  till  he  has  found  his  place  again,  or  has 
made  a  new  one  for  himself. 

One  is  still  more  helpless  who  is  lost  in  the  woods. 
The  trees  may  wave,  the  sun  shine,  the  flowers  bloom, 
the  birds  sing ;  all  may  be  beautiful :  but  one  who  is 
lost  has  no  part  in  it  all.  He  has  no  food  but  the 
berries,  no  shelter  but  the  trees,  no  friend  to  whom  he 
may  speak. 

This  illustration  shows  how  little  any  one  of  us 
amounts  to  when  he  is  left  wholly  to  himself;  and  how 
we  really  live  in  the  social  life  around  us. 

You  have  all  read,  I  hope,  the  story  of  Robinson 
Crusoe.  You  may  think  that  there  was  a  man  who 
lived  by  himself,  and  independent  of  the  world. 

But  think,  how  sad  he  was,  and  how  he  longed  to  be 
with  human  beings  once  again. 

Think,  also,  how  much  he  took  with  him  that  other 
people  had  made,  without  which  he  would  have  per- 
ished. He  had  food  with  which  to  begin  his  life  on  the 
island;  he  had  tools  with  which  to  provide  for  his 
needs.  All  these  things  and  other  conveniences  were 
the  product  of  the  civilization  that  he  had  left. 

Notice,  further,  that  in  making  a  place  to  live,  in  mak- 
ing a  boat  to  sail  in,  and  in  whatever  else  he  did,  he  was 
acting  according  to  the  experience  that  he  had  had,  and 
the  observation  that  he  had  made  before  he  left  home. 


86  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

When  he  went  beyond  all  that  his  experience  had 
given  him,  he  used  the  results  of  the  training  that  he 
had  had,  and  the  habits  of  mind  that  he  had  inherited 
from  the  past. 

He  was  thus  simply  a  member  of  European  society,  a 
representative  of  European  civilization,  and  a  product 
of  European  history,  who  happened  to  be  separated 
from  the  social  world  of  which  he  was  a  part.  He  lived 
on  the  island,  illustrating,  as  far  as  circumstances 
allowed,  the  results  of  European  history  and  European 
civilization. 

If  he  had  belonged  to  a  savage  community,  though 
he  might  in  some  things  have  done  just  what  he  really 
did  do,  yet  he  would,  on  the  whole,  have  thought,  felt, 
and  acted  like  a  savage  instead  of  thinking,  feeling,  and 
acting  as  a  European. 

This  illustration  shows  how  impossible  you  would 
find  it  to  live  as  if  you  were  alone  in  the  world.  As  I 
said  before,  if  you  could  give  up  all  that  you  have  re- 
ceived from  the  past  and  from  the  social  world  of  the 
present,  there  would  be  actually  nothing  left  of  you. 

If  a  leaf  on  a  tree  could  think,  it  would  be  just  as 
easy  for  it  to  try  to  be  something  without  regard  to  the 
other  leaves  and  to  the  tree  on  which  it  grows,  as  for  a 
man  to  try  to  be  anything  by  and  for  himself,  without 
regard  to  the  social  order  of  which  he  is  a  part  and  a 
product. 

The  leaf  may  fall  from  the  tree  and  wither;  but  it  is  a 
leaf  just  the  same  :  only  it  is  a  shrunken  and  withered  leaf. 
So  a  man  may  try  to  live  as  if  the  rest  of  the  world  had 


Relations  to  Others.  87 

no  interest  for  him ;  but  he  cannot  help  being  a  part  of 
this  world :  only,  in  trying  to  live  without  regard  to  it, 
he  may  lose  something  of  the  fullness  and  strength  of 
his  life,  just  as  the  fallen  leaf  loses  so  much  of  its 
beauty. 


88  Ethics  for  Young  People. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

SELFISHNESS. 

If  thus  no  one  lives  merely  for  himself,  but  is  a  part 
of  the  community,  the  family,  the  town,  the  state,  and 
the  world  to  which  he  belongs,  it  is  clear  that  one's 
first  business  in  life  is  to  fill  his  place  properly  and 
well. 

One  who  would  live  merely  for  himself,  without  regard 
for  others,  is  like  a  musician  in  a  band  or  orchestra  who 
seeks  to  make  as  much  noise  as  he  can,  and  thus  at- 
tract attention  to  himself,  instead  of  simply  filling  his 
place  in  the  great  whole.  Such  a  one  would  attract  at- 
tention to  himself,  but  he  would  simply  make  himself 
disagreeable  and  ridiculous. 

I  do  not  mean  that  one  is  not  to  seek  his  own  good 
or  his  own  happiness.  It  would  be  a  very  dull  and 
spiritless  world  if  no  one  cared  for  his  own  interest  or 
pleasure. 

Indeed,  if  one  does  not  take  care  of  himself  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  he  cannot  fill  his  place  in  the 
great  body  to  which  he  belongs.  The  soldier  must 
keep  well  and  strong  and  in  good  spirits,  or  he  cannot 
be  what  he  should,  in  the  march  or  the  battle.  Many  a 
soldier  who  has  been  kept  back  by  sickness  or  suffering 
from  taking  part  in  some  dif^cult  and  perilous  move- 
ment in  which  the  army  corps  to  which   he  belonged 


Selfishness.  89 

was  taking  part,  has  regretted  his  failure  to  be  in  his 
place  and  to  do  his  share  of  the  work,  more  than  all  the 
pain  that  he  is  suffering. 

The  world  in  which  we  live  is  like  a  great  army,  in 
which  each  has  a  place.  The  family,  the  school,  all  the 
relations  in  which  one  stands,  are  like  the  divisions  of  an 
army,  at  least  in  so  far  that  each  supplies  a  place  in 
which  one  must  stand,  and  gives  also  duties  which  be- 
long to  this  place. 

While,  then,  one  seeks  his  own  interest  and  pleasure, 
he  is  not  to  seek  these  as  if  other  people  did  not  have 
their  own  interests  and  pleasures,  which  are  worth  as 
much  to  them  as  his  are  to  him. 

The  living  as  if  one  were  alone  in  the  world,  or  rather 
as  if  other  people  were  in  the  world  simply  to  serve  us, 
is  called  selfishness.  Selfishness  consists  in  the  disregard 
of  others,  and  in  seeking  to  fulfil  one's  own  desires  as  if 
other  people  had  neither  desires  nor  rights. 

Selfishness,  we  might  almost  say,  is  the  one  bad  thing 
in  the  world,  for  all  crimes  and  all  misdeeds,  great  and 
small,  spring  from  it. 

It  is  selfishness  that  robs  and  cheats.  The  selfish 
man  wants  money.  He  does  not  care  that  others  have 
also  their  wants  and  their  rights.  They  have  money 
and  he  wants  it ;    so  he  takes  it  in  any  way  that  he  can. 

It  is  selfishness  that  is  the  source  of  intemperance  and 
all  the  degradation  and  crime  to  which  it  leads.  To  see 
the  drunkard,  poor  and  ragged,  despised  and  ridiculed, 
you  would  hardly  think  that  he  went  into  it  for  the  sake 
of  having  a  good  time.     If  he  went  into  it  for  that,   it 


go  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

does  not  seem  to  have  been  a  success.  But  it  is  because 
at  the  first  he  thought  merely  of  his  own  immediate 
pleasure,  and  forgot  the  happiness  of  father  and  mother, 
or  of  wife  and  children,  that  he  sank  to  this  low  condi- 
tion. 

It  is  selfishness  that  leads  to  the  neglect  of  the  poor 
and  the  helpless,  that  makes  men  so  stingy  and  mean 
that  they  are  often  unwilling  to  help  others  even  when 
it  can  be  done  at  little  cost  or  trouble  to  themselves. 

It  is  selfishness  that  speaks  the  cruel  words  or  makes 
the  jest  that  gives  another  pain. 

It  is  selfishness  that  takes  pleasure  in  tormenting  an- 
other ;  that  takes  pleasure  in  tormenting  the  dumb  ani- 
mals. 

In  a  word,  selfishness  seeks  to  get  the  most  good  pos- 
sible out  of  the  world,  and  to  do  the  least  that  is  possi- 
ble for  others. 

It  is  easy  from  this  to  see  what  a  mean  thing  it  is  to 
be  selfish.      Indeed,  what  we  call  meanness  is  selfishness 
on  a  small  scale.      But  selfishness  on  a  large  scale  is  just 
as   contemptible  and  just  as  mean  as  the  other.     You 
have  a  contempt  for  the  child  that  gets  off  by  itself,  so 
that  it  can  eat  its  cake  or  candy  without  having  to  share  j 
it  with  its  friends.     You  have  a  greater  contempt  foi 
the  child  that  gets  possession  of  its  playmate's  share  o1 
the  good  things  that  children  love  so  much.     But  self 
ishness  of  older  people,  in  regard  to  things  considerec 
much  more  important  and  dignified,  is  just  as  mean  anc 
contemptible  and  childish   as  this.     The  selfishness 
the  great  conqueror  who  gratifies  his  ambition  at  tl 


Selfishness.  g  i 

cost  of  the  lives  or  happiness  of  milHons ;  or  that  of  the 
demagogue  who  misleads  the  people,  arousing  their 
discontent  and  passion,  that  his  schemes  of  ambition 
may  be  aided,  is  just  as  mean  as  that  of  the  child  that 
seizes  its  playmate's  cake  or  apple. 


92  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 

OBEDIENCE. 

We  have  seen  that  every  man  is  a  member  of  the 
body  that  we  call,  in  general,  *'  Society."  First  he  be- 
longs to  the  family,  and  then  through  this  to  larger 
organizations.  Selfishness  we  have  found  to  be  the  at- 
tempt of  a  person  to  live  as  if  he  existed  merely  on  his 
own  account  and  as  if  other  people  existed  for  him. 

There  are  several  ways  in  which  the  relation  to  this 
common  life  makes  itself  felt.  Some  of  these  we  will 
now  consider. 

One  of  the  most  outward,  and  yet  one  of  the  most 
important  of  these,  is  obedience. 

It  is  obedience  by  which  the  man  takes  the  place  that 
belongs  to  him  by  yielding  to  the  claims  which  society 
makes  upon  him. 

These  claims  differ  according  to  the  age  or  the  posi- 
tion of  the  person  upon  whom  they  are  made.  So  far 
as  one  neglects  them  and  lives  merely  on  his  own  ac- 
count, he  loses,  as  we  have  seen,  his  best  life. 

The  boy  sometimes  feels  that  it  is  childish  to  obey  the 
rules  of  the  home  or  the  school.  He  feels  that  to  set 
them  at  defiance  is  manly.  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
obedience  that  is  manly  and  disobedience  that  is  childish. 

The  baby  knows  no  rules.  It  seeks  only  what  seems 
pleasant  to  itself.     It  is  kept  only  by  force  from  doing 


Obedience.  93 

what  would  be  harmful  to  itself,  or  to  the  persons  and 
things  about  it. 

Soon,  however,  in  the  case  of  a  child  properly  trained, 
the  rules  begin,  and  it  never  is  free  of  them  again  so 
long  as  it  lives. 

The  first  lesson  that  the  child  has  to  learn  is  the 
general  one  of  obedience.  It  must  learn  to  obey,  for  this 
lies  behind  and  beneath  all  other  lessons. 

In  the  matter  of  obedience  the  training  of  a  child  is 
like  the  training  of  a  dog  or  a  horse.  When  the  animal 
has  learned  what  it  is  to  mind  it  can  learn  a  great  many 
other  things. 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  child  must  have  hard  and 
harsh  rules.  The  best  obedience  is  learned  quietly  and 
pleasantly,  and  almost  without  the  sense  of  constraint. 
Even  a  dog  is  best  trained  in  this  way,  and  then  it 
thoroughly  enjoys  performing  its  tricks. 

You  may  have  been  surprised  at  being  told  that  it  is 
manly  to  obey,  and  that  men  and  women  have  to  do 
this.  At  school  the  scholar  has  to  mind  the  teacher, 
and  the  teacher  seems  only  to  command.  But  the 
teacher  has  to  obey  as  truly  as  the  scholar.  What  would 
you  think  if,  when  you  went  to  school,  you  should  find 
that  the  teacher  had  gone  off  for  a  day's  pleasuring  in 
the  woods  ?  You  might  like  it,  but  what  would  your  par- 
ents or  the  committee  think?  What  would  they  think 
if  the  teacher  did  not  hear  your  lessons,  and  did  not  see 
that  you  learned  them  ?  Thus  you  see  that  the  teacher 
has  to  obey  as  well  as  the  scholar. 

What  would  you  think  of  a  shop-keeper  who  should 
shut  up  his  shop  every  now  and  then,  when  he  wanted 


94  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

a  little  fun?  or  of  a  doctor  who,  when  he  was  sent  for, 
should  send  back  word  that  he  was  reading  a  novel  and 
that  he  did  not  wish  to  leave  off  ?  In  all  such  cases  we 
should  not  say,  ''  How  manly  these  people  are  to  do 
what  they  feel  like  doing,  without  regard  to  the  demands 
that  are  made  upon  them. "  We  should  say,  "  How 
childish  they  are  !  "  Thus  you  see  that  to  obey  is  man- 
ly;   to  refuse  to  obey  is  childish. 

The  man  has  to  obey  more  strict  laws  than  the  boy 
or  the  girl  knows  anything  about.  On  a  ship,  the  sailors 
think  what  an  easy  time  the  captain  has.  He  seems  to 
have  nothing  to  do  but  to  give  orders.  But  the  sailors, 
except  when  the  weather  is  especially  bad,  have  their 
hours  of  work  and  their  hours  of  freedom ;  their  watch 
above  and  their  watch  below.  But  the  captain  is  never 
quite  free.  He  not  only  has  to  obey  the  orders  of  the 
owners  of  the  ship,  but,  in  doing  this,  he  has  to  have 
thought  for  everything,  for  the  wind  and  the  currents, 
for  the  barometer  and  the  clouds.  He  is  subject  thus 
not  merely  to  the  direct  orders  of  the  ship's  owners,  but 
to  every  change  of  wind,  and  to  all  the  facts  about 
him,  to  what  we  may  call  tJic  law  of  things. 

This  law  of  things  is  more  pressing  and  continuous 
than  any  other.  It  is  to  this  that  men  and  women  are 
especially  subject. 

Above  all  there  is  the  law  of  duty,  the  obligation  to 
do  right,  from  which  one  can  never  escape. 

Obedience  is  in  life  what  subjection  to  law  is  in  the 
natural  world.  It  is  obedience  that  keeps  the  planets  in 
their  places,  and  brings  seed-time  and   harvest  each   in 


Obedience.  95 

Its  season ;  just  as  it  is  obedience  that  makes  all  the  dif- 
ference between  a  civilized  society  and  a  horde  of  savages 
This  is  what  Wordsworth  had  in  mind  when  in  his 
magnificent  "  Ode  to  Duty  "  he  exclaimed  : 

"  Thou  dost  preserve  the  stars  from  wrong ; 
And  the  most  ancient  heavens,  through  Thee,  are  fresh  and  strong.  " 

One  who  has  not  learned  to  obey  can  hardly  find  a 
pleasant  or  satisfactory  position  in  a  world  that  both 
physically  and  socially  is  held  together  by  obedience. 


g6  Ethics  for   Young  People. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

LOVE   AND    SYMPATHY. 

Every  person,  as  we  have  seen,  is  bound  to  the  social 
order  by  obHgations  that  require'obedience.  This  bond 
is,  however,  an  outward  one.  TJiere  is  an  inner  bond 
which  is  even  more  important,  by  which  each  one  of  us 
is,  or  should  be,  united  to  those  about  him.  This  is 
love  or  sympathy. 

A  Httle  while  ago  we  saw  that  no  man  can  live  by  and 
for  himself,  and  that  we  are  dependent  upon  the  world 
of  men  and  women,  the  world  of  the  present  and  the 
world  of  the  past,  for  all  that  we  have  and  are.  The 
same  thing  may  be  more  clearly  seen  in  the  fact  that 
any  person  becomes  unhappy  if  long  separated  from  his 
kind.  We  all  need  the  companionship,  the  sympathy, 
and  the  love  of  others.  Hardly  any  punishment  is  so 
severe  as  a  long  term  of  solitary  imprisonment.  In 
Hawthorne's  story,  ''The  House  of  the  Seven  Gables," 
the  character  of  Clifford  Pyncheon  shows  how  a  person 
becomes  weakened  and  stupefied  by  such  imprisonment. 
It  is  indeed  well  for  all  sometimes  to  be  alone.  Too 
much  and  too  constant  intercourse  with  others  may  hin- 
der our  best  life.  But  nothing  is  more  painful  and  more 
dangerous  to  the  best  life  than  prolonged  separation 
from  other  people. 

I  have  known  a  case  in  which  an  ox,  whose  yoke-fel- 


Love  and  Sympathy.  97 

low  had  died,  died  itself  shortly  after  from  mere  loneli- 
ness. Men  and  women  are  hardly  less  dependent  upon 
companionship. 

The  world  is  so  made  that  it  probably  never  happens 
that  a  person  lives  who  has  not,  or  has  never  had,  any 
one  to  love  him.  There  is  the  love  of  parents,  of 
brothers  and  sisters,  of  relatives  and  companions. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  as  rare  to  find  a  person  who 
does  not  love  some  other  person,  or  at  least  some  ani- 
m.al ;  though  some  persons  are  so  bound  up  in  them- 
selves that  this  love  is  very  weak. 

Love  and  sympathy  may  generally  be  regarded  as 
stronger  or  weaker,  examples  of  the  same  thing,  or  as 
different  aspects  of  the  same  thing.  There  may,  how- 
ever, be  sympathy  where  there  is  no  love,  and  love 
where  there  is  little  sympathy. 

There  may  be  sympathy  without  love,  for  you  may 
sympathize  with  the  grief  of  a  person  who  is  a  stranger, 
and  even  with  that  of  one  whom  you  dislike. 

It  seems  less  natural  that  there  can  be  love  without 
sympathy.  A  person  may,  however,  be  selfish  enough 
to  cause  pain  to  another  whom  he  loves,  with  no  thought 
of  what  he  is  doing.  A  young  man  may,  by  disobe- 
dience or  evil  habits,  cause  great  grief  to  his  parents 
whom  he  really  loves. 

Sympathy  needs  a  certain  thoughtfulness  as  its  root. 
One  must  think  of  others  and  put  himself  in  their  place, 
and  consider  what  will  please  and  what  will  wound 
them.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  nothing  can  be  more 
cruel  than  love  that  is  thoughtless  in  regard  to  its  object. 


98  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

Every  one  knows  that  other  people  have  feeHngs  Hke 
his  own.  But  though  we  all  know  this,  it  takes  some 
people  a  long  while  to  really  feel  that  it  is  so,  to  realize 
that  others  have  feelings  that  can  be  pained. 

Every  one  should  have  such  a  sense  of  this  fact  that 
he  will  shrink,  by  a  kind  of  instinct,  from  giving  another 
unnecessary  pain,  just  as  he  shrinks  from  giving  him- 
self unnecessary  pain. 

We  should  thus  extend  our  own  personalities,  so  that 
we  shall  feel  with  and  for  others  somewhat  as  if  they 
were  a  part  of  ourselves. 

This  interest  in  others,  whether  it  be  love  which  we 
can  feel  only  for  a  few,  or  sympathy  which  we  should 
feel  more  or  less  for  all,  may  take  the  hardness  out  of 
the  duty  and  obedience  which  were  spoken  of  in  the  last 
chapter. 

The  doctor  going  to  see  his  patient  may  go,  not  be- 
cause it  is  his  duty,  or  merely  to  gain  this  special  fee, 
but  because  he  is  interested  to  help  him.  The  boy  may 
do  what  his  parents  wish  because  he  loves  to  please 
them. 

If  we  cannot  live  without  the  companionship  of  others, 
and  if  we  are  all  surrounded  by  affection  and  interest 
that  give  the  charm  to  our  lives,  how  careful  should  we 
be  to  meet  such  love  and  sympathy  with  a  correspond- 
ing love,  and  a  thoughtful  sympathy,  so  that  we  shall 
not  receive  everything,  and  give  nothing  in  return. 


Usefulness.  99 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

USEFULNESS. 

We  have  seen  that  every  one  is,  or  should  be,  bound 
to  the  world  of  men  and  women,  outwardly  by  obedience, 
and  inwardly  by  love  and  syinpatJiy.  In  these  ways  each 
becomes  a  member  of  the  great  organization  that  we 
call  society. 

Growing  out  of  these  is  another  form  of  relation 
as  important  as  these  ;    namely,  that  of  nsefulness. 

Every  one  has  a  place  in  the  world,  and  if  he  fills 
this  place  properly,  he  is  of  service  to  others  and  to  the 
great  body  of  which  he  is  a  member. 

Notice  the  workmen  when  some  large  house  is  being 
built,  and  see  how,  while  they  are  busied  in  many  dif- 
ferent ways,  each  one  is  helping  on  the  common  work. 
The  hod-carrier  carries  up  the  bricks  and  mortar ;  the 
mason  places  the  bricks  carefully  and  evenly  where  they 
befong;  the  carpenter,  the  glazier,  the  painter,  the 
slater,  and  all  the  rest,  do  some  one  kind  of  work,  and 
others  another ;  and  all,  under  the  direction  of  the  con- 
tractor, carry  out  the  plan  of  the  architect,  till  what  was 
at  first  merely  a  thought  in  the  mind  of  the  architect 
becomes  a  finished  building,  fitted  for  use,  and  perhaps 
an  object  of  beauty.  From  the  architect  to  the  hod- 
carrier,  no  one  of  the  workmen  could  be  spared. 

We  see  the  growth  and  the  beauty  of  a  tree.     Here 


100  Ethics  for  Young-  People. 

also  every  part  is  of  use.  The  roots  draw  up  the  nour- 
ishment from  the  soil.  The  trunk  and  the  limbs  give 
strength  and  form,  and  furnish  channels  through  which 
the  sap  runs  to  every  part.  The  green  leaves  are  the 
lungs  through  which  the  tree  breathes.  The  flowers 
and  fruit  prepare  and  cherish  the  seed  from  which  other 
trees  spring.  The  lightest  leaf,  the  gayest  flower,  the 
most  thread-like  rootlet  that  is  hidden  in  the  black 
earth,  all  are  of  service,  and  each  helps  on  the  common 
life. 

Look  now  at  the  world  of  men  and  women,  and  see 
how  every  calling  is  an  opportunity  for  some  form  of 
usefulness  by  which  society  is  the  gainer.  The  doctor, 
the  lawyer,  the  minister,  the  shoemaker,  the  gardener, 
the  shopkeeper,  the  dressmaker,  and  all  other  workers, 
are  each  filling  a  place  in  the  great  social  body.  If 
these  places  were  not  filled,  the  life  of  the  world  would 
be  lacking  in  something. 

Men  enter  these  callings  for  the  most  part,  perhaps, 
to  get  a  living.  It  is,  however,  an  important  fact  that  to 
get  a  living,  one  needs,  for  the  most  part,  to  perform 
some  service ;  just  as  the  flowers  earn  their  right  to 
their  place  in  the  plant  and  to  the  sap  that  comes  to 
them,  by  preparing  and  protecting  the  germs  that  are 
to  become  seeds. 

The  man  that  considers  merely  how  much  money  he 
can  make  by  his  labor,  fills  his  place  in  the  world  very 
poorly.  Think  how  grand  and  noble  a  thing  all  labor 
would  come  to  be,  if  each  one  would  perform  it  with  the 
thought  that  by  it  he  is  doing  his  part  for  the  well-being 


Usefulness.  loi 

of  the  world.  Every  one  should  make  his  life  larger 
by  the  thought  of  the  usefulness  and  the  importance  of 
what  he  is  doing,  and  the  thought  that  by  it  he  is  a  living 
member  of  the  great  body. 

We  sometimes  fancy  that  we  would  like  to  live  merely 
to  amuse  ourselves,  with  no  cares  or  duties.  But  when 
we  think  more  carefully,  we  see  that  this  would  be  a 
mean  sort  of  life.  One  would  be  ashamed  to  have  the 
whole  world  working  for  him,  and  he  to  be  doing  noth- 
ing for  the  world. 

Besides  these  ways  of  usefulness  that  grow  out  of  the 
various  callings  of  life,  one  who  has  the  love  and  the 
thoughtful  sympathy  that  were  spoken  of  in  the  last 
chapter,  will  find  many  other  kinds  of  special  helpful- 
ness. There  are  always  about  us  those  for  whom  we 
can  do  something.  People  are  always  doing  something 
for  us  in  these  little  ways,  and  it  would  be  mean  not  to 
do  the  like  for  them.  Even  if  they  were  not  helpful  to 
us,  that  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  help  them. 
We  can  pay  to  them  a  part  of  the  debt  that  we  owe  to 
those  who  have  helped  us,  but  whom  we  have  not 
helped. 

For  boys  and  girls  in  school  or  in  college,  the  school 
or  the  college  is  their  place  of  business.  They  are  get- 
ting ready  to  take  their  part  in  the  work  of  the  world, 
just  as  the  growing  twig  is  getting  ready  to  bear  its 
part  of  the  weight  of  leaves  and  fruit. 

But  while  this  preparation  is  going  on,  there  are 
chances  enough  for  helpfulness.  These  are  found  at 
home,  among  their  companions,  or  with   those  whom 


102  Ethics  for   Yotmg  People. 

they  chance  to  meet;  and  everyone  who  has  the  right 
spirit  will  take  both  pleasure  and  pride  in  being  helpful. 
One  should  be  ashamed  merely  to  be  taken  care  of  in 
the  world  without  doing  anybody  any  good,  even  if  the 
interest  that  he  has  for  others  would  let  him. 

As  self-command  is  the  fundamental  principle  of  the 
ethics  of  Stoicism,  and  as  the  desire  for  happiness  is  that 
of  the  ethics  of  Epicureanism,  so  the  principle  of  love 
and  service  is  fundamental  in  the  ethics  of  Jesus. 


Truth  and  Honesty,  103 

CHAPTER   XXIX. 

TRUTH    AND    HONESTY. 

We  have  seen  that  men  are  bound  to  society  by  obe- 
dience, love,  and  usefulness.  There  are  certain  virtues 
growing  out  of  these  principles,  and  certain  vices  corre- 
sponding to  these,  a  few  of  which  we  will  now  consider. 

Prominent  among  these  virtues  are  those  of  truth  and 
honesty.  To  these  are  opposed  the  vices  of  lying  and 
cheating. 

Society  is  like  a  building,  which  stands  firm  when  its 
foundations  are  strong  and  all  it's  timbers  are  sound. 
The  man  who  cannot  be  trusted  is  to  society  what  a 
bit  of  rotten  timber  is  to  a  house. 

How  often  we  see  the  effects  of  dishonesty  in  the 
building  of  houses.  Every  now  and  then  we  read  of 
some  great  crash,  which  has  occurred  because  the  con- 
tractor who  was  putting  up  a  building  had  been  dishon- 
est. He  had  used  poor  material,  or  had  put  his 
material  carelessly  together.  So  the  building  falls  per- 
haps even  before  it  is  finished. 

Poor  work  is  bad  enough ;  but  what  the  man  is,  is 
even  worse  and  more  harmful  than  what  he  does.  He 
himself  is  a  piece  of  rotten  timber,  to  which  no  one  can 
trust;  and  he  is  tending  to  make  society  itself  as  unsta- 
ble as  the  house  that  he  was  pretending  to  build. 

Society  exists  because  men  trust  one  aiiother.     On  the 


I04  Ethics  for  Yoicng  People. 

whole,  men  can  be  trusted,  if  one  uses  a  reasonable  care. 
The  dishonest  man  thus  does  not  belong  to  a  civilized 
society.  He  belongs  to  the  times  of  barbarism  before 
men  had  learned  the  worth  and  importance  of  trust- 
worthiness. 

He  thus  is  in  the  position  of  a  barbarian  who  is  mak- 
ing war  upon  civilization,  just  as  the  hostile  Indian 
lurks  about  some  settlement  in  the  wilderness,  seeking  to 
plunder  and  destroy. 

What  contempt  we  have  for  a  man  who  robs  another, 
who  picks  his  pocket,  or  knocks  him  down  in  some 
lonely  place  and  strips  him  of  whatever  articles  of  value 
he  may  have!  But  the  man  who  cheats,  is  a  thief  just 
as  truly  as  the  pickpocket  and  the  robber. 

There  are  kinds  of  cheating  that  the  law  cannot  or 
does  not  touch.  The  man  who  practises  this  kind  of 
dishonesty  is  even  worse  than  if  he  were  doing  that 
which  the  law  punishes.  He  uses  the  law  which  was 
meant  to  protect  society  as  a  cover  from  which  he  can 
attack  society. 

The  boy  who  cheats  in  his  games  really  spoils  the 
games.  The  game  is  not  for  the  sake  of  the  victory. 
It  is  the  idea  of  the  victory  that  gives  zest  to  the  game. 
It  is  the  playing  according  to  rule,  and  the  winning,  if 
one  can  win  according  to  the  laws  of  the  game,  that 
give  all  the  fun  there  is  in  it.  Thus  the  boy  that  cheats 
does  for  the  playground  what  the  man  that  cheats  does 
for  society. 

As  the  boy  that  cheats  in  his  games  puts  himself 
outside  the  community  of  his  playmates,  and  makes  war 


Truth  and  Honesty.  105 

upon  it,  so  he,  when  he  grows  up  to  be  a  man,  will 
probably  be  the  one  who  will,  by  dishonesty,  separate 
himself  from  society  and  make  war  upon  it. 

Lying  is  a  form  of  dishonesty,  and  a  very  bad  form  of 
it.  What  would  become  of  the  world  if  we  could  not 
trust  to  one  another's  word? 

A  lie  is  told  for  one  of  two  ends :  either  to  get 
some  advantage  to  which  one  has  no  real  claim,  in 
which  case  it  is  merely  a  form  of  cheating;  or  to  de- 
fend one's  self  from  the  bad  consequences  of  something 
that  one  has  done,  in  which  case  it  is  cowardly. 

It  is  always  mean  for  a  man  or  boy  "'  to  go  back,"  as 
we  say,  on  a  friend.  It  is  still  worse,  if  possible,  to 
'*  go  back "  on  one's  self.  A  brave  man  or  boy  will 
manfully  take  the  consequences  of  his  act,  and  if  they 
are  bad,  will  resolve  to  do  better  another  time. 

The  worst  sort  of  deceit  is  that  by  which  one  lets  an- 
other bear  the  blame,  or  in  any  way  suffer,  for  w^hat  one 
has  one's  self  done.  Such  meanness  happens  some- 
times, but  it  is  almost  too  bad  to  be  spoken  of. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  call  acts  and  actors  by  their 
right  names.  If  we  should  always  do  this,  I  think  it 
might  save  us  from  some  faults. 

If  before  speaking  what  is  untrue,  one  should  say  to 
one's  self,  *'  That  would  be  a  lie,  and  if  I  should  say  it  I 
should  be  a  liar"  ;  or  if  before  doing  a  dishonest  thing 
one  should  say  to  one's  self,  *'  If  I  should  do  this  I 
should  be  a  cheat,"  I  think  fewer  false  words  would  be 
spoken  and  fewer  dishonest  acts  would  be  done, 


Io6  Ethics  for  Young  People, 

CHAPTER   XXX. 

GOOD   TEMPER. 

A  MAN  with  a  bad  temper,  like  one  who  lies  and 
cheats,  makes  war  upon  his  social  surroundings  :  only  he 
does  in  an  open  and  bold  way  what  the  other  does 
in  a  sly  and  underhand  way ;  and,  further,  his  war  is 
with  individuals,  while  one  who  lies  and  cheats  attacks 
the  very  foundations  of  society. 

It  is  not,  however,  always  wrong  to  be  angry.  There 
are  occasions  when  it  would  be  wrong  not  to  be  angry. 
In  these  cases  it  is,  indeed,  war ;  but  it  is  war  in  defence 
of  society,  not  against  it.  We  do  not  call  a  man  who  is 
angry  only  when  it  is  right  to  be  angry,  a  man  of  bad 
temper. 

If  one  sees  a  strong  boy  tormenting  a  small  or  weak 
one,  or  abusing  some  helpless  animal,  anger  is  a  proper 
as  well  as  a  natural  feeling.  It  is  so,  too,  when  one 
sees  another  imposing  upon  some  one  more  ignorant  or 
simple  than  himself,  taking  advantage  of  ignorance  and 
simplicity. 

One  may  sometimes  be  angry  at  wrongs  done  to 
one's  self,  when  one  has  been  treated  brutally,  or  has 
been  wickedly  deceived. 

Anger  is  in  such  cases  a  natural  instinct  of  defence, 
by  which  one  wards  off  or  punishes  injury  to  others,  or 
to  one's  self 


Good  Temper.  107 

In  spite  of  this,  anger,  as  it  actually  exists  in  the 
world,  is  more  often  wrong  than  right.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  it  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  a  fault. 

It  is  a  fault  when  one  gets  angry  too  easily.  There  are 
persons  who  lose  their  temper  at  any  little  thing.  They 
are  always  thinking  that  others  meant  to  injure  them  in 
something  that  they  said  or  did.  They  are  always 
thinking  of  their  rights  or  their  feelings. 

Such  anger  is  a  form  of  selfishness.  It  comes  in  part 
from  keeping  the  self  prominent  in  one's  thoughts,  and 
thinking  that  whatever  is  said  or  done  has  had  some 
reference  to  one's  self. 

This  appears  from  the  fact  that  such  persons  have  very 
often  less  consideration  for  others  than  for  themselves. 

We  should  remember  that  anger  is  apt  to  be  a  very 
unjust  judge.  Nothing  exaggerates  like  anger.  To 
look  at  an  act  through  an  angry  mood,  is  like  looking 
at  an  object  through  a  magnifying  glass.  It  is  often 
more  like  looking  through  a  glass  that  distorts  as  well 
as  magnifies.  In  anger,  everything  looks  out  of  propor- 
tion. 

One  should  be  thoughtful  to  distinguish  between 
what  is  meant  and  what  is  accidental.  Even  a  'dog  will 
often  show  no  anger  if  it  thinks  that  one  trod  on  it  by 
accident;  whereas  if  it  thinks  the  hurt  was  intentional  it 
will  be  filled  with  rage.  We  ought  to  be  at  least  as 
considerate  as  a  dog. 

Because  anger  exaggerates,  the  passion  is  often  too 
strong  even  where  there  may  have  been  some  real  prov- 
ocation, 


io8  Ethics  for  Yoimg  People. 

*'  Anger,"  says  an  old  Latin  proverb,  "  is  a  short  mad- 
ness." The  boys  say  something  of  the  same  kind  when 
they  speak  of  being  ''  mad,"  when  they  mean  angry, 
p  The  person  carried  away  with  anger  has  no  mastery 
of  himself.  He  does  not  know  what  he  is  saying  or 
what  he  is  doing.  He  is  really  ''beside  himself"  He 
sees  nothing  as  it  is.  Such  a  person  is  feeling  very 
heroic,  but  he  is  often  appearing  very  foolish  and  ridic- 
ulous. 

Anger  is  often  unreasonable.  In  anger  we  pronounce 
judgment  upon  another,  perhaps  upon  our  best  friend. 
For  the  moment  we  see  only  his  faults.  We  are  com- 
plainant as  well  as  judge.  As  the  criminal  has  no  ad- 
vocate, we  should  pause  and  plead  his  cause  ourselves, 
and  ask,  "  Is  it  certain  that  the  accusation  is  true?  Is 
the  case  quite  as  bad  as  it  looks?  Has  this  person, 
whom  at  other  times  we  have  loved,  no  good  qualities? 
Is  there  nothing  to  be  said  in  his  defence?  " 

Anger  is  often  too  long-lived,  even  when  it  may  have 
been  at  first  justifiable.  At  the  first  moment  of  passion, 
perhaps,  one  can  hardly  pause  to  ask  the  questions  that 
were  just  suggested ;  but  after  a  little  time  one  should 
be  able  to  do  this,  and  thus  control  the  wrath. 

If  you  are  angry  with  a  friend,  you  know,  though  you 
may  not  think  it  at  the  time,  that  the  anger  will  not  last 
forever.  You  may  calm  your  rage  by  looking  forward 
to  the  time  when  you  shall  be  again  at  peace  with  your 
friend. 

One  should  thus  learn  to  foj'give  even  when  one  has 
really  been  injured.     We  should  be  able  to  see  that  the 


Good  Temper.  109 

act  that  offended  us  was  far  less  evil  than  it  seemed  at 
first;  or  that  it  does  not  represent  the  real  or  the  whole 
person  who  offended  us.  Or  at  least  we  can  judge  it 
calmly,  as  if  it  had  been  done  to  another. 

Some  persons  are  by  nature  more  quick-tempered 
than  others.  By  giving  way  to  the  fault,  we  make  it 
worse  and  worse ;  while  by  checking  it,  in  such  ways  as 
have  been  named,  we  may  gain  the  habit  of  keeping  a 
better  command  over  ourselves. 

I  need  hardly  speak  of  the  advantages  of  having  a 
good  temper.  Not  only  are  one's  relations, to  others  the 
pleasanter  for  this,  but  one  can  even  guard  his  own  in- 
terests the  better.  The  bad-tempered  person  is  apt  to 
harm  himself  more  than  he  harms  others. 


iio  Ethics  for  Yoiuig  People. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

COURTESY. 

Early  in  this  book,  we  saw  that  the  words  **  moraHty  " 
and  "  ethics  "  mean,  in  their  etymology,  simply  manners  ; 
a 'id  we  saw  how  this  thought  of  manners  formerly  re- 
ferred to  the  whole  life.  At  present  we  use  the  word 
**  manners, "  simply  to  express  the  most  outward  rela- 
tions of  life.  We  speak  of  **  good  manners  "  or  *'  bad 
manners,  "  meaning  by  the  words  that  a  person  con- 
forms more  or  less  perfectly  to  what  are  called  the 
"  usages  of  good  society.  "  Thus  a  man  may  have  good 
morals  and  bad  manners,  or  he  may  have  good  m.an- 
ners  and  bad  morals,  or  both  his  manners  and  his 
morals  may  be  either  good  or  bad. 

Of  course,  if  we  have  to  choose  between  them,  it  is 
much  better  to  have  good  morals  than  good  manners. 
A  man's  good  manners  may  sometimes  even  help 
him  to  carry  out  wicked  plans.  In  this  case,  we  dislike 
him  all  the  more  for  the  good  manners  which  he  has 
used  to  help  him  in  his  wickedness. 

But  one  does  not  have  to  choose  between  the  two ; 
and  good  manners,  though  less  important  than  good 
morals,  are  yet  very  desirable. 

Some  kinds  of  bad  manners  do  no  harm  to  any  one 
except  to  the  person  practising  them.  They  are  dis- 
agreeable to  see,  but  their  greatest  effect  is  that  the  bad- 
mannered  person  shows  himself  to  be  a  boon 


Courtesy.  1 1 1 

If  a  man  keeps  on  his  hat  in  another  person's  house, 
he  simply  shows  himself  unacquainted  with  what  are  re- 
garded as  the  proprieties  of  life. 

Now,  it  is  not  desirable  to  be  a  "  dude  "  on  the  one 
side,  or  a  boor  on  the  other:  but  a  little  attention  to 
these  matters  will  help  to  make  one  agreeable  to  those 
whom  one  meets. 

Young  people  sometimes  think  attention  to  such 
things  is  foolish.  When  I  was  a  small  boy,  I  thought 
it  a  ridiculous  piece  of  affectation  in  the  schoolmistress, 
who  insisted  that  I  should  say  ''  catch "  instead  of 
**  ketch.  "  Now  I  am  grateful  for  the  breaking  up  of 
any  such  bits  of  ill  breeding. 

Another  kind  of  good  manners  is  still  more  import- 
ant. I  refer  to  habits  of  courtesy  towards  all  with 
whom  we  have  anything  to  do. 

Courtesy  towards  another  shows  a  certain  respect  for 
his  personality.  We  have  seen  that  we  should  respect 
ourselves :  it  is  hardly  less  important  to  show  respect  to 
others. 

A  habit  of  courtesy  is  like  a  delicate  wrapping  which 
prevents  one  personality  from  rubbing  and  chafing 
against  another ;  and  it  thus  prevents  much  of  the  friction 
and  irritation  of  life. 

Courtesy  is  perhaps  most  of  all  proper  from  the 
young  towards  those  who  are  older  than  themselves. 
There  is  too  little  of  this  in  our  days.  Boys  and  girls 
will  speak  to  their  elders,  perhaps  even  to  their  parents, 
with  rude  familiarity,  such  as  would  be  hardly  proper 
among  playmates. 


112  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

» 

When  one  meets  even  a  stranger  in  any  place  where 
the  two  are  brought  together,  a  Httle  greeting  does  much 
to  take  away  the  sense  of  strangeness.  In  Europe, 
when  one  enters  a  pubHc  conveyance,  or  seats  himself 
at  the  table  of  a  hotel,  or  meets  another  on  a  country 
road,  there  is  almost  always  a  pleasant  greeting,  such  as 
is  too  rarely  seen  in  this  country. 

The  habit  of  courtesy  from  boys  and  men  to  ladies  is 
another  mark  of  good  manners  which  is  not  to  be  neg- 
lected. 

Ladies  often  show  bad  manners  in  taking  such  acts  of 
courtesy  as  if  they  had  a  right  to  them.  If  a  man  offers 
a  lady  a  seat,  he  has  a  little  sense  of  injury  if  she  seems 
to  regard  it  as  her  due,  and  does  not  even  thank  him 
for  what  he  has  done.  This  sort  of  ill  manners  in 
American  women  has  tended  to  diminish  such  courtesy 
towards  them. 

One  should  show  courtesy  to  his  companions.  Boys, 
even  in  their  play,  should  be  courteous  to  one  another; 
One  who  is  always  pushing  for  the  best  without  regard 
to  others  shows  his  ill  breeding.  A  ''  thank  you  "  and 
a  "  please  "  on  proper  occasions,  are  not  out  of  place 
even  among  the  closest  companions. 

Perhaps  in  the  family,  courtesy  is  more  important 
than  anywhere  else ;  because  hardly  anywhere  else  are 
people  thrown  so  closely  together ;  and,  thus,  nowhere 
do  they  need  more  the  protection  of  courtesy  by  which 
much  unpleasant  friction  and  much  unhappiness  would 
be  avoided. 

Courtesy  is  not  something  artificial.      It  is  simply  an 


Courtesy.  1 1 3 

expression  of  thoughtfulness  for  others,  and  rudeness 
and  boorishness,  though  sometimes  they  spring  from 
ignorance,  are  more  often  the  expression  of  selfishness, 
which  forgets  the  feelings  and  the  tastes  of  others. 


114  Ethics  for  Young  People. 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 

THE    PLAYGROUND. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  speak  of  duties  in  connection 
with  play.  One  great  charm  of  play  is  the  escape  from 
the  sense  of  duty.  At  school  one  has  to  be  very 
careful  as  to  what  he  does  and  what  he  does  not  do. 
There  are  rules  at  every  turn,  but  on  the  playground 
one  escapes  from  rules. 

There  are  rules  of  a  sort,  it  is  true.  There  are  the 
rules  of  the  game.  There  are  also  certain  kinds  of 
mischief  that  must  not  be  done,  and  similar  general  reg- 
ulations ;  but  on  the  whole,  on  the  playground  one  is 
free ;  and  this  makes  a  good  part  of  the  pleasure  of  the 
sport. 

It  is  a  very  pleasant  thing  to  feel  one's  self  free ;  to  be 
able  to  do  just  what  one  feels  like  doing.  It  is  a  free- 
dom like  that  which  I  suppose  a  horse  feels,  when  he  is 
turned  out  to  pasture,  and  can  fling  out  his  heels,  or 
roll  without  any  thought  of  whip  or  rein. 
"  I  do  not  wish  to  disturb  the  sense  of  freedom  that 
you  have  at  play.  Indeed  it  is  because  the  playground 
is  so  free  a  place  that  I  speak  of  it  here.  There  is,  per- 
haps, no  time  in  the  world  when  a  person  shows  himself 
forjnst  what  he  is,  as  truly  as  he  does  when  he  is  amus- 
ing  himself  Then  he  has  no  rules  to  observe ;  he  is 
oif  his  guard,  and  whatever  of  good  or  bad  there  is  in 
him  is  likely  to  show  itself. 


TJie  PlaygroiLud.  115 

The  playground  is  a  little  Avorld  by  itself.  On  it  may 
be  displayed  a  great  many  of  the  virtues  and  the  faults 
of  the  great  world  in  which  men  and  women  live.  I  am 
sometimes  tempted  to  think  that  a  great  deal  that  goes 
on  in  this  larger  world  is  little  better  than  play  of  a  very 
formal  kind.  But  it  is  certain  that  the  great  world  is 
reflected  in  the  little  world  where  boys  and  girls  arc  at 
their  games. 

What  an  opportunity  there  is  on  the  playground  to 
show  the  strength  or  the  weakness  of  one' s  command  over 
himself.  Some  young  people  are  always  getting  angry 
in  their  play.  They  make  themselves  very  disagreeable 
to  their  companions.  They  may  break  up  the  merriest 
party  or  spoil  the  best  time. 

There  are  many  opportunities  to  lose  one's  temper  at 
play.  It  is  not  pleasant  to  lose  the  game ;  yet,  from 
the  nature  of  the  case,  some  must  lose  it. 

It  is  especially  unpleasant  to  lose  it  by  the  bad  play 
of  some  one  on  your  own  side,  and  it  is  very  often  the 
case  that  the  game  is  lost  in  this  way. 

It  is  very  easy  to  think  that  the  other  side  has'  not 
played  fairly,  and  to  get  angry  over  the  suspicion  or 
the  belief. 

It  is  very  easy  to  get  into  a  quarrel  over  the  rules  of 
the  game. 

In  some  games  it  is  very  easy  to  get  hurt  and  to  ac- 
cuse some  one  of  being  the  cause  of  it. 

There  are,  indeed,  more  ways  of  losing  one's  temper 
than  I  have  time  or  space  to  name.  The  boy  or  the 
girl  who  is  quarrelsome,  could  not  have  a  better  field 
for  showing  this  quality. 


1 1 6  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

The  boy  or  the  girl  of  good  temper  and  pleasant  dis- 
position has  the  same  opportunity  to  show  them.  It 
one  can  meet  all  the  chances  of  play  pleasantly,  he 
shows  great  self-command,  and  by  this  experience  he  is 
fitting  himself  more  and  more  to  take  part  in  the  great 
game  of  life.  Even  in  the  hardest  tussle  one  should 
keep_Jiis_Jemper.  I  was  once  passing  a  group  of  boys 
at  play,  and  heard  one  of  them  exclaim,  *'  Any  boy 
that  can't  fight  without  getting  mad,  had  better  not 
fight  at  all."  It  was  a  wise  saying,  which  has  often 
since  come  to  my  m.ind. 

Selfishness  shows  itself  as  easily  on  the  playground 
as  it  does  anywhere  else. 

How  many  there  are  who  always  want  to  have  their 
own  way.  No  matter  what  others  prefer,  everything 
must  be  just  as  these  say.  There  are  tyrants  on  the 
playground  as  truly  as  there  ever  were  in  Greece  or 
Rome. 

Sometimes  these  tyrants  have  their  way  because  they 
are  strong,  and  their  playmates  are  afraid  not  to  do  as 
they  wish.  Sometimes,  strange  to  say,  they  have  their 
way  because  they  are  weak.  They  make  such  an  ado 
when  they  do  not  have  what  they  want  that  the  others 
follow  them  for  the  sake  of  peace.  They  think  they  are 
leaders ;  they  would  be  a  little  disgusted  if  they  knew 
they  were  being  treated  like  babies. 

Selfishness  may  show  itself  in  a  hundred  ways ;  in 
thoughtlessness  of  the  feelings  of  others,  in  seeking 
what  is  pleasant  to  one's  self  without  considering  any  one 
else,  in  taking  more  than  one's  share  of  what  is  pleasant. 


The  Playgro7ind.  11/ 

All  these  things  may  be  done  under  many  different 
forms. 

Kindness  and  generosity  have  their  place  in  the  play- 
ground. There  may  be  a  thoughtfulness  for  one  who 
is  weaker  than  the  rest,  or  who  is  a  new  comer,  or 
whom,  for  any  reason,  others  may  neglect.  There  is 
an  opportunity  to  stand  up  for  those  who  are  ill-used. 
There  is  a  generous  sympathy  for  those  who  in  any 
way  are  having  a  hard  time. 

There  is  an  opportunity  for  honesty  and  dishonesty  on 
the  playground.'  One  may  cheat  in  a  game  no  less 
than  in  business,  and  can  show  honesty  no  less.  Indeed, 
the  term  ''  fair  play  "  is  used  in  regard  to  the  most 
serious  affairs  of  life.  In  politics  or  in  business  of  any 
kind,  we  hear  it  said,  '*  Such  a  person  did  not  have  fair 
play."  In  this  use  of  the  word  we  see  the  standard  of 
play  applied   to  the  actual  affairs  of  life. 

There  is  a  great  opportunity  for  energy  or  laziness, 
presence  of  miftd  or  carelessness,  to  show  itself  on  the 
playground. 

In  all  these  ways  boys  and  girls,  when  they  are  at 
their  play,  show  pretty  well  what  they  are  going  to  be  hi 
later  life.  When  Napoleon  was  at  a  military  school, 
the  boys  were  one  day  playing  at  war.  One  set  of 
them  held  a  fort  which  the  others  were  trying  to  cap- 
ture. The  boy,  Napoleon,  led  the  attacking  party.  In 
the  midst  of  the  fight  there  was  a  flourish  of  trumpets, 
and  a  party  of  officers  entered  who  had  come  to  inspect 
the  school.     The  boys  that  held  the  fort  forgot  their 

^  See,  also,  chapter  XXIX. 


1 1 8  Ethics  for  Yoimg  People, 

play,  and  stood  staring  at  the  entering  group.  Napo- 
leon did  not  lose  his  head  for  a  moment.  He  kept  his 
party  up  to  their  work.  He  took  advantage  of  the  in- 
terruption, and  when  the  besieged  recovered  their  wits, 
their  fort  was  captured.  He  was  already  the  Napoleon 
who  in  the  real  battles  of  later  years  knew  how  to  turn 
so  many  seemingly  adverse  circumstances  to  good  ac- 
count. 

You  may  say,  *'  I  cannot  think  of  all  these  things 
when  I  am  playing ;  if  I  did,  I  should  have  no  time  to 
enjoy  the  game."  This  is  very  true.  You  can,  how- 
ever, think  of  them  beforehand,  and  make  up  your  mind 
what  you  will  do  and  what  you  will  not  do,  so  firmly 
that  your  mind  will  obey  when  you  are  not  thinking 
about  it.'  Or  if,  in  spite  of  your  purpose,  you  do  some- 
thing that  you  meant  not  to  do,  you  will  remember  it 
afterwards,  and  your  displeasure  with  yourself  will  help 
you  to  do  better  another  time. 

'  In  the  chapter  on  Conscience,  I  shall  speak  more  fully  of  this  power 
of  self-command. 


Fun.  119 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

FUN. 

The  word  *'  fun  "  as  it  is  used  by  young  people,  in- 
cludes a  great  deal.  So  far  as  I  can  understand,  it  means 
any  kind  of  *'  a  good  time."  Certainly  a  good  play, 
such  as  was  referred  to  in  the  last  chapter,  is  called  fun. 

I  shall  here  use  the  word  fun  in  its  stricter  meaning. 
Fun,  in  this  narrower  sense,  refers  to  *'  what  is  fimiiyy 
The  word  *' funny"  is  itself  used  in  a  very  loose  way. 
In  common  speech  whatever  is  surprising  is  sometimes 
called  funny;   sometimes  even  if  it  is  something  sad. 

Properly  speaking,  only  that  is  funny  which  is 
laughable.  I  wish  then  to  speak  in  this  chapter  of  what 
may  be  found  comical  by  one  or  another,  and  of  what 
is  done  or  said  for  the  sake  of  raising  a  laugh. 

We  may  often  find  in  kindly  and  innocent  mirth  both 
pleasure  and  refreshment.  The  opposite  of  mirth  is 
seriousness.  One  who  has  no  sense  of  fun  takes  every- 
thing seriously.  It  is  not  well  for  any  one  to  be  serious 
all  the  time.  For  one  who  is  so  the  strain  of  life  is 
often  too  hard. 

President  Lincoln  was  very  fond  of  a  funny  story. 
He  felt  the  strain  and  the  burden  of  the  war  so  strongly 
that,  if  it  had  not  been  for  this  relief,  he  would  have 
broken  down  long  before  the  war  was  over. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  able  to  see  the  ludicrous  side 


1 20  Ethics  for   Young  People, 

of  one's  own  mishaps  or  failures.  What  one  person  will 
grieve  over,  another  w^ill  carry  off  with  a  laugh.  One 
may  make  a  mistake,  for  instance,  or  meet  with  an  acci- 
dent which  is  not  very  severe,  and  be  mortified  beyond 
measure.  Another  will  see  the  funny  side  of  it,  and 
find  only  amusement.  A  person  who  can  never  see  the 
funny  side  of  such  mishaps,  goes  through  life  as  if  he 
were  riding  in  a  carriage  without  springs.  Every  little 
inequality  makes  a  bump. 

In  the  same  way  one  may  see  the  ludicrous  side  of 
the  troublesome  blunders  of  others.  I  know  a  lady  who 
had  a  very  stupid  gardener.  She  wondered  why  the 
bulbs  that  he  had  set  out  did  not  come  up.  At  last 
she  dug  down  to  see  what  had  happened.  She  found 
them  all  planted  upside  down.  Of  course  she  did  not 
like  it ;  but  she  amused  herself  with  the  absurdity  of  the 
thing,  imagining  them  at  some  future  day  sprouting  up 
in  China  to  the  wonder  of  the  natives. 

While  fun  is  in  itself  a  very  good  thing,  it  may,  like 
almost  anything  else  that  is  good,  be  made  a  very  bad 
thing. 

It  may  be  made  a  bad  thing  in  two  ways. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  bad  wJieii  there  is  too  much 
of  it. 

While  it  is  not  well  to  take  all  things  seriously,  it  is 
worse  to  take  nothing  seriously.  The  great  business  of 
life  is  serious,  and  one  who  finds  only  fun  in  every- 
thing keeps  himself  outside  the  reality  of  life.  He  is 
like  a  bit  of  thistledown  which  floats  about  in  the 
wind,  while  it  has  no  real  connection  with  anything. 


Fun.  121 

In  the  second  place  fun  may  become  a  bad  thing,  be- 
cause it  is  not  of  the  ingJit  kiiid. 

In  the  chapter  on  "  Different  Kinds  of  Heroes  "  we  saw 
that  a  person  may  be  judged  pretty  fairly  by  what  he 
admires.  The  object  of  his  admiration  shows  the 
kind  of  person  he  would  like  to  be.  A  person  may  be 
judged  about  as  truly  by  what  he  finds  funny  as  by 
what  he  admires. 

One  kind  of  fun  which  is  wrong  is  that  which  gives 
pain  to  others,  or  which  makes  sport  of  the  misfortunes 
of  others. 

There  is  hardly  anything  so  painful  or  unfortunate 
that  some  will  not  be  found  who  will  laugh  at  it.  The 
savages  were  sometimes  in  the  habit  of  tormenting  their 
captives.  The  tortures  that  these  underwent  were  to 
them  an  occasion  of  mirth.  Boys  sometimes  torment 
insects  or  animals  because  their  struggles  seem  to  them 
funny. 

If  we  were  without  the  feeling  of  sympathy,  almost 
any  weakness  or  suffering  might  seem  comical.  Thus 
to  some  the  infirmities  of  age,  or  any  deformity  in  the 
person  of  another,  seem  fit  objects  of  ridicule. 

In  all  such  cases  a  feeling  of  sympathy  would  change 
the  mirth  into  pity,  or  a  friendly  and  helpful  interest. 

It  would  do  this  in  two  ways.  In  the  first  place  we 
should  feci  so  sorry  for  the  persons  afflicted  that  we 
should  not  feel  like  laughing  at  them  ;  and  in  the  second 
place,  we  should  know  that  our  ridicule,  if  they  should 
be  aware  of  it,  would  add  to  their  pain. 

A  kind  sympathy  would  therefore  make  it  impossible 


122  EtJiics  for   Yo7i7ig  People. 

to  laugh  at  the  infirmities  or  misfortunes  of  others. 
Those  who  do  this  show  themselves  unfeeling  and 
cruel.  They  put  themselves  on  the  level  of  the  sav- 
ages. 

The  same  kindly  feeling  would  forbid  jests  that  would 
in  any  way  give  pain  to  others.  The  idea  of  wit  which 
some  people  have  is  to  say  sharp  things  to  another, 
perhaps  to  twit  him  with  something  of  which  it  is  sup- 
posed he  would  be  ashamed. 

A  person  of  good  feeling  would  never  find  sport  in 
what  gives  another  pain. 

I  have  read  a  story  of  a  youth,  who,  while  walking 
out  with  his  tutor,  saw  a  pair  of  shoes  that  a  poor 
laborer  had  left  under  a  hedge  while  he  was  busied 
with  his  work.  ''What  fun  it  would  be,"  exclaimed  the 
young  man,  '*  to  hide  these  shoes,  and  then  to  conceal 
ourselves  behind  the  hedge,  and  see  the  man's  surprise 
and  excitement  when  he  can  not  find  them."  "  I 
will  tell  you  what  would  be  better  sport,"  said  the  tutor ; 
*'  put  a  piece  of  money  into  one  of  the  shoes,  and  then 
hide  and  watch  his  surprise  when  he  finds  it."  This 
the  young  man  did ;  and  the  joy  and  wonder  of  the 
poor  laborer  when  he  found  the  money  in  his  shoe  was 
as  good  fun  as  he  wanted. 

It  is  much  better  sport  to  plan  pleasant  surprises  for 
people  than  to  prepare  unpleasant  ones. 

While  we  should  not  make  jests  that  will  give  another 
pain,  we  should,  on  the  other  hand,  not  be  too  sensitive 
at  jokes  that  are  played  on  us. 

Some  people  are  very  much  annoyed,  or  perhaps  lose 


Fun.  123 

their  temper,  if  they  are  laughed  at.  It  very  often  hap- 
pens that  those  that  are  most  ready  to  laugh  at  others 
are  the  most  displeased  when  the  laugh  is  against  them. 

Such  sensitiveness  is  very  weak ;  and  a  person  who 
is  so  weak  makes  sometimes  an  unpleasant  companion. 
We  all  laugh  at  one  another  sometimes  in  a  friendly 
way,  and  one  who  is  never  willing  to  be  the  object  of 
such  kindly  mirth  may  interrupt  the  pleasure  of  his 
companions. 

You  should  try  not  to  be  a  person  in  regard  to  whom 
your  companions  will  always  feel  obliged  to  consider  at 
every  turn,  whether  your  sensitive  feelings  are  likely  to 
be  hurt.  *'  One  must  take  as  well  as  give''  is  a  good 
motto  for  the  rough  and  tumble  sport  and  business  of  the 
world ;  just  as  "  One  must  give  as  well  as  take,'  is  a 
good  motto,  so  far  as  the  pleasures  of  life  are  con- 
cerned. 

Another  kind  of  joke  which  is  wrong  is  that  which 
is  filthy  and  indecent.  It  seems  to  some  persons  a  great 
stroke  of  wit  to  say  something  which  would  offend  nat- 
ural modesty.  There  is  no  kind  of  wit  which  is  so 
cheap,  and  no  kind,  of  which  anybody  who  would  be  in 
the  true  sense  of  the  word  a  gentleman,  should  be  so 
ashamed. 

Another  kind  of  joke  which  a  right  feeling  would 
avoid,  is  that  aimed  at  what  is  to  others  an  object  of 
reverence.  To  some,  profanity  seems  witty  as  well  as 
manly.  This  is  also  a  very  cheap  kind  of  joke  which 
needs  no  wit  for  its  making.  It  also  shows  low  and 
unmanly  tastes. 


124  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

We  find,  then,  three  kinds  of  jest  which  a  right  feel- 
ing person  will  avoid :  the  unkind,  the  indecent,  and 
the  profane. 

The  play  of  wit  and  humor  is  thus  very  much  like 
other  play.  It  is  one  of  the  pleasant  and  helpful  things 
in  life.  Like  other  play,  it  must  be  kindly,  good-tem- 
pered, and  pure.  Like  other  play,  it  must  not  make  up 
the  whole  of  life.  Rightly  used,  it  may  be  one  of  the 
best  helps  in  bearing  the  burden  and  doing  the  work  of 
the  world. 


Friends  h  ip.  125 


CHAPTER   XXXIV. 

FRIENDSHIP. 

While  we  should  be  courteous  towards  all  with  whom 
we  are  brought  into  relation,  and  should  take  part  in 
the  life  that  is  going  on  about  us,  we  cannot  be  equally 
intimate  with  all.  Thus  within  the  larger  circle  of  asso- 
ciates are  formed  smaller  groups  of  those  who  are  spe- 
cially bound  together  as  friends. 

What  are  known  as  friendships  may  be  the  result  of 
various  causes. 

Perhaps  most  often  those  who  call  one  another  friends 
are  those  wJwni  some  chance  has  brongJit  together,  and 
who  are  specially  united  in  work  or  play.  In  this  way 
friends  are  often  simply  those  who  amuse  one  another. 

Sometimes  one  considers  another  his  friend  because 
he  is  flattered  by  hint.  This  flattery  may  be  either  direct 
or  indirect.  It  is  direct  when  it  is  open  praise.  It  is 
indirect  when  it  is  a  conformity  to  one's  moods,  tastes, 
or  prejudices.  If  one  thinks  that  he  has  been  ill-used, 
it  is  pleasant  to  have  another  join  with  him  in  indigna- 
tion. It  is  pleasant  to  have  all  one's  jealousies,  ill-tem- 
pers, and  vanities  thus  sympathized  with.  Tyrants  can 
often  find  no  other  friendship  than  this ;  and  boys  and 
girls  have  sometimes  such  hangers  on,  who  think  it 
worth  the  while  thus  to  flatter  them.  The  boy  or  girl  of 
right  feeling  will  find  nothing  more  disgusting  than  this 
sort  of  companionship. 


1 26  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

True  friendships  are  based  upon  two  things. 

One  of  these  things  is  liking,  and  the  other  is  respect. 

People  like  one  another  when  each  finds  the  other 
pleasant  company.  They  have  such  similarity  in  tastes 
and  interests  that  they  like  to  be  together. 

For  real  friendship,  however,  this  is  not  enough. 
For  this,  respect  must  be  added  to  liking.  You  may 
think  it  strange  to  speak  of  boys  and  girls  respecting 
one  another.  You  may  think  that  respect  is  to  be  felt 
towards  older  people  only.  But  boys  and  girls  may  be 
as  worthy  of  respect  as  men  and  women. 

A  woman  got  into  a  street  car  the  other  day  some- 
what burdened  with  bundles.  A  little  girl  of  some  ten 
or  twelve  years  at  once  sprang  up  and  gave  her  a  seat. 
The  child  took  her  place  by  the  side  of  her  father,  who 
had  just  given  up  his  seat  in  a  similar  way.  As  she 
stood  there,  holding  her  father's  hand,  with  a  sweet  look 
on  her  face,  I  could  not  help  respecting  her  for  her  act 
of  kindness,  and  for  the  pleasant  way  in  which  it  was 
performed. 

Boys  and  girls  who  are  honest  and  brave,  to  whose 
honor  and  kindness  you  may  trust,  these  are  worthy  of 
respect.  If  you  will  think  of  your  companions,  you 
will  find  that  some  you  respect,  and  some  perhaps  you 
do  not.  Those  whom  you  respect  may  be  as  full  of  fun 
as  the  others,  but  there  is  to  them  something  besides 
fun. 

You  want  for  a  friend  some  one  whom  you  would  like 
to  have  with  you  in  trouble,  should  you  meet  it,  as  well 
as  in  sport;   such  a  one  is  one  who  has  your  respect. 


Friendship.  127 

Choose,  then,  for  your  friends,  those  whom  you  can 
respect;  and  always  act  so  as  yourself  to  deserve  the 
respect  of  your  friends  and  companions. 

Nothing  adds  more  to  the  pleasantness  of  life  than 
friendships.  Friendships  iiivolve,  however,  certain  du- 
ties;  and  we  have  now  to  notice  some  of  these. 

If  one  has  a  friend,  one  sJionld  be  loyal  to  him.  This 
loyalty  may  show  itself  in  several  ways. 

If  one  is  with  those  who  speak  ill  of  his  friend,  it  is 
very  base  to  join  in  such  evil  speaking.  It  is  very 
base,  for  instance,  to  join  in  ridiculing  a  friend,  except 
in  a  way  that  he  himself  would  regard  as  a  harmless 
jest.  One  should  stand  up  for  one's  friend  when  he  is 
thus  spoken  ill  of. 

Loyalty  to  a  friend  is  shown  in  looking  out  for  his 
interest   and  helping  his  plans  in  every  honorable  way. 

One  should  7wt  be  jealous  of  one's  friend.  Such  jeal- 
ousy may  show  itself  in  either  of  two  ways. 

One  of  these  ways  grows  out  of  the  desire  to  monopo- 
lize the  interest  of  a  friend.  Some  persons  are  troubled 
if  their  friend  does  not  seem  to  be  wholly  bound  up  in 
them.  They  do  not  realize  that  the  larger  the  life  of 
their  friend  is,  the  better  worth  having  is  his  friendship. 

There  is  another  kind  of  jealousy  which  it  is  more 
difficult  to  avoid.  I  mean  the  unpleasant  feeling  that 
may  arise  if  one's  friend  gets,  as  we  say,  "  ahead''  of  him. 
Friends  are  apt  to  be  pretty  nearly  equal  in  many  ways, 
so  that  a  feeling  of  rivalry  may  very  easily  arise.  This 
is  so  common  that  there  is  a  familiar  saying  to  the 
effect  that  a  man  always  has  a  certain  pleasure  in  hear- 


128  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

ing  of  the  misfortunes  of  his  best  friends.  I  have  seen 
in  '*  Punch "  a  picture  of  a  man  reading  a  magazine 
with  a  pleased  look  on  his  face.  His  friend,  entering, 
notices  this,  and  asks,  "  Are  you  reading  a  favora- 
ble notice  of  your  book?"  "No,"  is  the  answer;  **  I 
am  reading  an  unfavorable  notice  of  yours."  For  the 
reason  stated  above,  such  things  may  easily  happen 
among  those  who  call  themselves  friends. 

A  true  friend  will  rejoice  in  his  friend's  successes  and 
sorrow  in  his  defeats  as  though  they  were  his  own. 
There  is  nothing  more  beautiful  than  such  unselfish 
sympathy. 

A  true  friend  sometimes  finds  it  harder  to  bear  the 
trouble  of  his  friend  than  his  own  misfortunes.  One  can 
make  light  to  himself  of  his  own  suffering  and  call  him- 
self weak  for  yielding  to  it;  but  it  would  seem  harsh  to 
treat  in  this  way  his  friend's  misfortune. 

While  you  do  well  to  seek  from  your  friend  sympathy 
in  your  own  trouble,  do  not  overburden  him  with  petty 
complaints  and  discontents. 

Show  yourself  brave  and  strong,  and  be  sure  that 
you  will  receive  more  sympathy  from  your  friend  than 
if  you  whine  and  grumble.  If  he  sees  you  trying  to 
make  light  of  your  trouble,  it  will  seem  to  him  more 
real.  If  you  make  too  much  of  it,  he  will  tend  to  make 
light  of  it. 

Be  honest  with  your  friend.  Express  frankly  your 
own  thought.  No  true  person  wishes  a  friend  to  be 
what  Emerson  calls  a  "  mush  of  concessions."  If  you 
do  not  show  that  you  have  a  character  and  personality 


Friendship.  1 29 

of  your  own,  what  is  there  for  your  friend  to  respect 
or  love? 

If  your  friend  does  wrong,  tell  him  kindly  and  hon- 
estly. A  friend  who  will  not  thus  advise  is  not  worth 
the  having. 

If  your  friend  reminds  you  kindly  of  your  faults,  take 
what  he  says  not  only  pleasantly,  but  thankfully.  Few 
treasures  are  worth  as  much  as  a  friend  who  is  wise  and 
helpful.  Such  a  one  alone  can  remind  us  of  our 
faults. 

While  you  seek  in  all  honorable  ways  to  serve  your 
friend,  7iever  say  for  him  what  is  false y  or  do  for  Jiim 
what  is  dishonorable.  ' 

I  once  heard  a  man  say,  as  the  highest  praise  of 
another  business  man,  that  he  would  not  do  a  dishonor- 
able thing  to  oblige  a  friend. 

In  school,  no  less  than  in  business  life,  one  is  often 
tempted  to  say  what  is  false,  or  to  do  what  is  dishonora- 
able  for  the  sake  of  a  friend.  This  a  true  friend  will 
never  ask.  If,  when  you  refuse  to  do  this,  your  friend 
thinks  that  you  show  your  lack  of  regard,  you  can  an- 
swer him  in  the  spirit  of  words  of  the  poet/ 

"  I  could  not  love  thee,  dear,  so  much 
Loved  I  not  honor  more." 

^  Lovelace,  "  To  Jocasta,  on  going  to  the  wars." 


130  Ethics  for  Young  People. 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

THE    HOME. 

Besides  the  friendships  which  we  form  in  the  world 
are  those  which  grow  up  naturally  in  our  homes  and 
which  are  apt  to  be,  as  they  ought  to  be,  the  closest  and 
the  dearest  of  any. 

Almost  all  living  creatures  have  their  homes.  The 
birds  have  their  nests,  the  wild  beasts  their  dens,  the 
bees  their  hives. 

To  almost  all  creatures  these  homes  are  the  dearest 
places  in  the  world.  How  gladly  the  birds  fly  to  their 
nests  at  night!  How  frightened  are  the  parent  birds 
if  a  stranger  approaches  the  nest  where  their  little  ones 
are !  How  fierce  are  the  wild  beasts  if  any  one  draws 
near  their  lair !  Nothing  rouses  the  fear  or  the  rage  of 
these  lower  creatures  so  much  as  anything  that  seems  to 
threaten  the  quiet  of  their  homes.  How  eager  a  horse 
is  to  get  back  to  the  stable,  often  so  very  dismal,  which 
is  his  home. 

To  men,  also,  the  home  is  apt  to  be,  and  should  be, 
the  dearest  place  on  earth.  I  suppose  that  no  song 
was  ever  sung  so  often  or  by  so  many  people  in  widely 
distant  lands  as  that  which  is  so  familiar  to  us  all,  and 
which  many  can  sing  who  can  sing  little  else,  —  the 
song  of  which  the  refrain  is, 

"  Home,  home,  sweet,  sweet  home." 


Home.  131 

Though  the  animals  have  homes  as  we  do,  their  rela- 
tion to  their  homes  is  very  different  from  our  relation 
to  our  homes. 

Think  how  little  while  the  animals  are  interested  in 
their  young,  and  how  soon  the  young  cease  to  care  for 
their  parents  and  for  one  another.  The  young  come 
into  the  world,  and  live  together  for  a  little  while.  The 
parents  take  care  of  them.  They  feed  them  and  keep 
them  warm ;  they  fight  for  them  if  need  be ;  some- 
times they  will  even  die  for  them.  But  very  soon  the 
little  group  breaks  up.  The  young  birds,  for  instance, 
in  a  few  weeks  grow  strong  enough  to  fly.  They  leave 
their  nests,  and  scatter,  this  way  and  that.  In  time 
they  build  nests  of  their  own,  and  I  do  not  know  whether 
they  would  recognize  one  another  or  the  parent  birds 
again. 

In  our  homes,  boys  and  girls  live  for  years  before 
they  are  able  to  take  care  of  themselves.  When  at  last 
they  go  out  into  the  world  and  have  homes  of  their 
own,  they  still  remember  one  another  and  love  one 
another,  and  still  remember  with  love  and  gratitude  the 
parents  to  whom  they  owe  so  much. 

To  many  the  home  in  which  their  childhood  was 
passed  continues,  as  long  as  they  live,  to  be  among  the 
places  that  they  love  the  most;  and  it  is  a  great  joy  if 
now  and  then,  perhaps  on  Thanksgiving  day  or  Christ- 
mas, they  can  go  back  to  it  again. 

The  fact  that  children  are  so  long  in  growing  up,  and 
pass  so  many  years  together  under  the  care  of  their 
father  and  mother,  is  most  important  in  the  history  of 


132  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

the  race.  During  this  long  period  of  growth  in  the 
home  they  become  fitted,  as  they  could  not  in  any 
other  way,  to  take  their  place  in  the  larger  world  of  men 
and  women.  If  children  remained  in  their  home  as 
short  a  time  as  the  young  of  the  animals  do,  it  is  prob- 
able that  men  would  have  never  risen  above  the  state 
of  barbarians.  The  home  has  been  the  great  civilizer 
of  the  world. 

We  have  seen  in  other  chapters  the  importance  in  the 
world  of  sympathy  and  affection,  of  obedience  and  trust- 
fulness. All  these  are  learned  in  the  family  as  they 
could  not  so  well  be  learned  anywhere  else. 

Through  the  habit  of  loving  brothers  and  sisters  and 
parents  men  came  very  slowly  to  have  somewhat  the 
same  regard  for  other  persons.  Through  obedience  to 
the  commands  of  parents  men  have  formed  the  habit 
of  obedience,  so  that  they  submit  easily  to  the  laws 
of  society.  Thus  it  is  very  largely  through  the  influ- 
ence of  the  home,  and  from  the  fact  that  our  childhood 
lasts  so  many  years,  that  the  race  of  man  has  risen  from 
barbarism  to  civilization. 

The  life  in  the  home,  which  is  so  important,  and 
which  is  to  most  so  pleasant,  involves  many  duties,  a 
few  of  which  we  will  notice. 

Since  the  home  ought  to  be  one  of  the  pleasantest 
places  in  the  world,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  member  of  a 
family  to  try  to  make  it  so.  Rude  ways  of  acting  and 
speaking,  which  would  be  faults  anywhere,  are  greater 
faults  at  home  than  anywhere  else. 

I   have  spoken  of  home  as  if  it  were  almost  always 


Home.  133 

pleasant.  It  is  not  always  so.  To  some  their  home  is 
very  dreary.  The  trouble  is,  often,  that  some,  or  per- 
haps all,  do  not  try  to  make  it  pleasant.  They  live 
each  for  himself,  and  do  not  care  how  much  they  may 
wound  those  about  them. 

Some  persons  are  pleasanter  and  more  courteous  any- 
where else  than  they  are  at  home.  A  voice  that  is  very 
sweet  when  addressed  to  outside  friends  or  acquaint- 
ances, becomes  sometimes  sharp  and  petulant  when 
addressed  to  members  of  the  family.  Some  who  are 
very  gracious  and  thoughtful  towards  other  people,  are 
very  rude  and  inconsiderate  towards  those  who  belong 
to  their  own  household. 

Some  persons,  young  and  old,  in  their  own  family 
are  interested  only  in  their  own  affairs.  At  home 
they  are  silent  and  absorbed,  though  when  they  go  out 
into  the  world  they  may  be  lively  enough. 

One  should  be  more  courteous,  more  polite,  more 
thoughtful,  more  entertaining,  and  more  helpful  at  home 
than  anywhere  else. 

It  is  indeed  only  those  who  are  courteous  at  home  ''' 
that   are   really   courteous    anywhere;    for   if  they   are 
rude  there,  their   manners   in   the  outside  world  do  not 
really  belong  to  them.     They  are  put  on  like  their  fine 
dress,  and  are  taken  off  again  with  that. 

Some  people,  too,  are  slovenly  at  home,  who  look 
very  well  when  they  go  anywhere  else.  But  home 
should  be  always  neat  as  well  as  pleasant. 

But  you  may  say,  '*  Is  there  no  place,  then,  where 
one  can  be  himself  ?  where  one  can  be  free  and  easy 


134  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

without  being  troubled  by  the  thought  of  how  he  ought 
to  speak  and  act  and  look?" 

But  what  do  you  really  consider  yourself  ?  or  what 
kind  of  a  self  do  you  want?  When  you  are  fretful,  and 
disobliging,  and  sulky,  and  bound  up  in  your  own  plans 
or  amusements,  are  you  most  really  yourself  ?  Are  you 
not  truly  yourself  when  you  are  kind  and  thoughtful  for 
others,  when  by  a  pleasant  word  or  kind  act  you  make 
those  about  you  happier?  This  at  any  rate  is  what 
ought  to  be  yourself 

Such  a  life  as  I  have  described  in  the  family  has  two 
results.  It  makes  the  home  pleasant,  and  it  makes  the 
boy  or  the  girl  really  pleasant. 

When  one  who  has  lived  like  this  at  home  goes  out 
into  the  world,  he  does  not  need  to  put  on  a  show  of 
good  manners.  His  good  manners  have  become  a  part 
of  himself 

Thus  the  family  may  do  for  young,  people  now  what 
it  has  been  doing  for  the  world  all  along ;  that  is,  it 
may  civilize  them. 

To  civilize  is  obviously  to  make  civil.  The  uncivil 
person  is  an  uncivilized  person.  That  is,  he  is  so  far  a 
barbarian.  The  most  natural  place  to  learn  to  be  civil 
is  the  home ;  though  one  who  has  not  learned  it  there, 
must  try  to  learn  it  where  he  can. 

In  the  chapter  on  Obedience  I  have  spoken  of  the 
obedience  due  to  parents.  This  is  the  first  duty  of  a 
child,  except  in  the  rare  cases  where  the  parent  com- 
mands something  that  is  really  wrong. 

The   son   and  the   daughter  should   also   try  to   help 


Home.  135 

their  parents,  and  should  do  this,  not  as  a  matter  of 
duty,  but  out  of  love  and  interest.  The  boy  should 
not  fret  at  having  to  bring  wood,  or  to  do  something  in 
the  garden,  or  to  run  on  an  errand.  The  daughter 
should  try  to  find  little  things  that  she  can  do  about  the 
house.  She  should  be  glad  to  do  a  little  sewing,  to 
help  to  care  for  the  younger  children,  and  especially  to 
take  care  of  her  own  things.  Sons  and  daughters 
should  do  this  out  of  interest,  because  it  is  their  home. 
Few  things  will  please  the  father  and  mother  more  than 
such  interest  in  the  home. 

Sometimes  the  children  have  had  advantages  that 
their  parents  did  not  have.  Whatever  good  they  may 
have  gained  in  this  way  they  should  try  to  use  in  such 
a  way  as  to  make  the  home  pleasanter  and  happier. 

There  is  very  much  that  brothers  and  sisters  can  do 
for  one  another.  This  relationship  ought  to  be  one  of 
the  pleasantest  and  most  helpful  in  life. 

Girls  are  apt  to  be  more  gentle  and  refined  than  boys  ; 
they  can  thus  do  very  much  to  make  their  brothers  gen- 
tler ;  not  so  much  by  formal  lecturing  as  by  the  influ- 
ence that  comes  naturally  from  intercourse  with  them. 
Advice,  when  it  is  needed,  from  a  sister  to  a  brother,  if 
it  is  kindly  given,  may  often  do  very  much  good. 

Darwin,  who  was  one  of  the  most  famous  students  of 
nature,  tells  us  that  it  was  his  sisters  who  made  him 
humane ;  that  is,  who  made  him  kind  and  thoughtful. 
He  began  his  studies  of  nature  when  he  was  a  boy.  He 
made  collections  of  birds'  eggs.  Through  the  influence 
of  his  sisters  he  became  so  thoughtful  for  the  birds  that 
he  used  to  take  only  a  single  egg  out  of  a  nest,  so  that 


136  Ethics  for  Young  People. 

the  old  birds  should  not  be  troubled  because  their  little 
home  had  been  broken  up. 

Young  men  are  apt  to  think  that  young  women  are 
in  some  respects  better  than  they.  A  sister  may  at 
least  do  something  to  make  her  brother  keep  this  re- 
spect for  women,  which  may  be  an  important  thing  in  his 
life.  She  may  do  this  simply  by  the  force  of  her  own 
character,  not  setting  herself  up  as  though  she  were 
above  him,  but  simply  by  being  true  and  kind  and  sym- 
pathetic. 

Then,  too,  a  sister  should  be  glad  to  help  her  brother 
as  he  may  need  with  her  needle  and  other  womanly  im- 
plements. The  boy  is  very  helpless  about  many  little 
things  with  which  the  girl  is  quite  at  home. 

The  brother  can  help  the  sister  in  his  turn.  He  is 
stronger  than  she,  and  can  do  many  a  little  service  in 
return  for  what  he  has  received.  He  should  be  glad  to 
put  his  strength  and  courage  and  activity  at  her  service. 

If  brothers  can  be  so  much  to  their  sisters,  and  sisters 
to  their  brothers,  none  the  less  may  sister  be  helpful  to 
sister,  and  brother  to  brother. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  so  near  a  friend  as  a 
brother  or  a  sister,  to  whom  one  may  confide  whatever 
happens  to  fill  his  heart,  to  whom  one  may  always  look 
for  sympathy  and  aid. 

I  know  that  the  relation  of  brothers  and  sisters  is 
sometimes  very  different  from  this.  It  is  a  great  pity, 
when  the  good  and  the  pleasure  that  may  come  from 
this  relationship  are  lost.  When  they  are  lost  it  is 
always  through  somebody's  fault.  Be  very  careful  that 
it  is  not  through  yours. 


TJie  School.  137 

CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

THE   SCHOOL. 

As  was  implied  in  the  chapter  on  Obedience/  the 
school  is  the  scholar's  place  of  business.  From  this 
several  things  will  follow. 

One  is,  that  you  should  be  regular  in  attendance. 
You  should  always  be  at  school,  unless  there  is  some 
really  important  reason  why  you  cannot.  What  should 
you  think  of  a  clerk  who  should  stay  away  from  his 
place  whenever  he  had  a  mind  to? 

The  mere  attendance  at  school  is  training  in  regu- 
larity. Unless  one  has  a  habit  of  regularity  he  will 
accomplish  very  little  in  the  world.  Irregularity  in 
attendance  also  breaks  up  the  work  of  the  school.  It 
interrupts  the  connection  of  one  day's  work  with  that  of 
the  next,  besides  burdening  the  scholar  with  extra  work 
to  make  up  for  lost  time. 

Try  always  to  be  in  season.  What  would  you  think 
of  a  clerk  who  should  drop  into  the  office  or  the  store 
half  an  hour  behind  time?  I  am  afraid  one  who  should 
do  this  often  would  soon  be  told  that  he  need  not  come 
any  more. 

There  are  few  more  important  habits  than  that  of 
punctuality,    and  in  order  to   be  sure   of  being    punc- 

^  Chapter  XXVI. 


138  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

tual  one  should  make  it  a  habit.  There  is,  on  the  other 
handj  no  habit  more  easily  formed,  or  more  trouble- 
some, than  that  of  always  being  a  little  behindhand  in 
an  appointment. 

Suppose  one  who  has  to  meet  half  a  dozen  persons 
at  a  given  hour  is  ten  minutes  late.  He  puts  back  the 
business  ten  minutes,  and  will  have  wasted  just  an  hour 
of  other  people's  time. 

The  scholar  who  is  late  at  school  wastes  other  peo- 
ple's time  as  well  as  his  own.  What  a  disturbance 
it  is  when  he  comes  lounging  in  and  interrupts  all  the 
other  scholars  at  their  work. 

Always  come  neat  and  clean  to  the  school.  An 
employer  would  soon  dismiss  a  clerk  who  should  come 
with  unwashed  face  and  hands,  and  with  untidy  clothes. 
The  scholar  who  comes  to  school  untidy  and  unwashed 
disgraces  his  home  as  well  as  himself.  No  matter  if  it 
is  his  own  fault,  it  is  the  home  that  will  bear  much  of 
the  shame  of  it.  Who  would  want  to  disgrace  his 
home? 

Be  honest  at  school.  Scholars  sometimes  borrow 
pencils,  paper,  and  other  things,  and  do  not  return  or 
replace  them..  Books  and  instruments  that  belong  to 
the  school  are  sometimes  kept  by  the  scholar.  False 
excuses  for  failures  are  sometimes  given.  All  these 
things  are  as  bad  as  any  other  dishonesty. 

At  school  attend  to  the  work  of  the  school.  What 
should  you  think  of  a  clerk  at  his  desk  who,  instead  of 
keeping  accounts,  should  draw  pictures  in  his  account 
books,  or  get  up  sly  games  with  the  other  clerks.     I 


The  School. 


139 


fancy  that  he  would  very  soon  be  told  that  he  might 
amuse  himself  elsewhere. 

I  have  said  that  the  school  is  your  place  of  business. 
I  must  now  add  that  it  is  the  place  of  your  business. 
It  is  for  yourself  that  you  are  working  at  the  school,  and 
for  nobody  else.  Your  parents  and  friends  are  inter- 
ested in  your  success,  but  it  is  because  your  success  in 
school  will  fit  you  for  success  later  in  the  world. 

While  the  school  is,  as  I  have  said,  the  place  of  your 
business,  you  may  be  helped  to  fulfil  its  duties,  by  re- 
membering the  disappointment  which  your  failure  would 
cause  to  your  parents  and  friends. 

You  have  perhaps  heard  of  the  famous  French  scien- 
tist, Pasteur,  to  whom  so  many  people  that  have  been 
bitten  by  mad  dogs,  have  been  sent  from  this  country. 
The  discovery  that  he  made  in  regard  to  the  cause  and 
nature  of  hydrophobia  is  only  one  of  many  which  have 
been  of  the  greatest  service  to  mankind.  When  he  was 
a  boy  at  school,  Pasteur  at  first  neglected  his  studies. 
He  preferred  fishing  and  other  amusements  to  the  work 
of  the  school.  At  last,  however,  he  realized  that  his 
father,  who  had  little  means,  was  making  great  sacrifices 
in  order  that  he  might  obtain  an  education.  He  then 
began  to  study  in  good  earnest.  It  was  the  thought 
of  what  he  owed  to  his  father  that  made  him  what  he  is. 

The  scholar  sometimes  thinks  of  the  teacher  as  if  he 
were  his  enemy.  The  teacher  is  called  a  *'  master,"  or 
**  mistress,"  and  the  scholar  feels  himself  to  be  in  some 
sort  a  slave.  Really  the  teacher  is  simply  working  for 
the  scholar.  He  is  his  helper,  performing  for  him  one 
of  the  greatest  services  that  can  be  done, 


140  Ethics  for   Youjig  People. 

College  students  used  sometimes  to  carry  away  the 
chapel  bell  and  hide  it.  They  did  this  partly  for  the 
fun  of  the  thing,  and  partly,  perhaps,  with  the  idea  that 
the  absence  of  the  bell  would  be  an  excuse  for  irregu- 
larity in  attendance  on  college  exercises.  In  most  cases 
a  great  disturbance  was  made  about  such  an  act.  There 
was  a  great  examination  of  students,  a  great  search 
for  the  bell,  and  threats  of  punishment  for  the  offender. 
In  one  case,  however,  the  president  of  the  college  sim- 
ply said  to  the  students,  "  Young  gentlemen,  the  bell 
was  solely  for  your  convenience.  It  was  thought  that  it 
would  help  you  to  wake  in  the  morning,  and  to  be  reg- 
ular in  attendance  at  college  exercises.  If  you  do  not 
want  it,  it  is  none  of  our  affair.  We  shall  take  no  trou- 
ble to  find  it.  You  may  do  without  it  as  long  as  you 
like.  But  no  student  will  be  excused  from  absence  or 
tardiness  on  account  of  the  absence  of  the  bell."  I  need 
hardly  say  that  the  bell  was  soon  in  its  place. 

All  the  rules  of  the  school  are  like  the  chapel  bell, 
simply  helps  to  the  scholar  in  doing  the  work  of  the 
school.  Like  the  chapel  bell  they  are  on  his  account; 
only  he  cannot  be  left  to  choose  whether  he  will,  or  will 
not,  disregard  them ;  for  by  such  disregard  his  life 
may  be  greatly  harmed. 

I  know  that  young  people  are  restless  and  fond  of 
sport.  I  know  that  the  sunlight  out  of  doors  looks  very 
pleasant,  and  the  thought  of  play  is  very  attractive,  and 
I  know  that  their  attention  is  very  easily  turned  ;  in  a  word, 
that  they  are  bubbling  over  with  life  and  activity. 
This  makes  it  all  the  harder  for  them  to  do  the  work 


TJie  School.  141 

which  is  needed,  in  order  that  they  may  be  fitted  to 
take  their  place  later  in  the  world.  These  facts  show  the 
importance  of  the  rules  that  seem  so  hard.  They  are 
helps  in  doing  what  the  scholar  cannot  afford  to  leave 
undone,  and  which  most  young  people  could  hardly  do 
without. 

Think  how  many  have  toiled  under  the  most  painful 
circumstances  to  get  knowledge. 

William  Cobbett,  who  was  a  distinguished  writer  on 
political  subjects  in  England,  was  in  his  youth  a  private 
soldier,  receiving  as  wages  only  six  pence  (about  twelve 
and  a  half  cents)  a  day.  He  tells  us  how  he  studied. 
When  he  needed  a  book,  a  pen,  or  paper,  he  had  to  go 
without  some  portion  of  food,  though  he  was  half- 
starved.  The  edge  of  his  berth  when  at  sea,  or  that  of 
his  guard-bed  when  on  shore,  was  his  seat  to  study  in. 
In  the  winter  he  could  have  no  light,  except  that  of  the 
fire,  and  that  only  in  his  turn.  In  this  way  he  pursued 
the  studies  that  are  made  so  easy  for  you  at  school, 
especially  English  Grammar,  which  interested  him 
greatly.'^ 

When  Lincoln  was  practising  law,  he  interrupted  his 
business  in  order  to  study  mathematics,  so  as  to  learn 
what  it  is  "  to  demonstrate." 

Charles  James  Fox  was  a  distinguished  English  states- 
man. When  he  was  appointed  Secretary  of  State,  he 
took  writing-lessons  like  a  schoolboy,  because  some 
one  criticised  his  handwriting. 

^  See  Smiles'  "  Self  Help,"  which  contains  many  incidents  of  similar  ear- 
nestness. 


142  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

These  men,  as  many  others  have  done,  pursued  under 
great  hardship,  or  at  great  personal  inconvenience,  stud- 
ies that  are  made  easy  to  those  that  can  go  to  school. 
At  school  the  scholar  has  books,  time,  help,  and  every 
thing  that  is  needed  for  his  work.  Yet  some  think  it  is 
hard  to  do,  even  under  these  pleasant  circumstances,  what 
others  have  thought  worth  doing  under  great  difficulty. 
Yet  what  they  learned  was  of  no  more  value  to  them 
than  the  learning  that  is  forced  into  the  laziest  school- 
boy is  to  him ;  except  that  by  their  energy  they  could 
make  better  use  of  it. 


Patriotism,  1 43 

CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

PATRIOTISM. 

As  it  is  natural  to  love  our  home,  it  is  also  natural  to 
love  our  country.  As  the  poorest  homes  are  sometimes 
most  tenderly  loved,  so  the  poorest  and  barest  country 
is  sometimes  held  in  most  affection.  There  was  per- 
haps never  a  country  in  the  world  the  inhabitants  of 
which  have  not,  at  some  time  or  other,  been  willing  to 
suffer  and  die  for  it. 

Such  affection  is  natural,  because  the  town  and  the 
nation  in  which  one  has  lived  is,  like  the  home,  bound 
up  with  all  the  experiences  of  one's  life.  The  games  of 
childhood,  the  affection  of  parents,  the  love  of  friends, 
all  the  joycs  the  sorrows,  the  activities  of  life,  are  bound 
up  in  the  thought  of  one's  native  land ;  so  that  men 
have  felt  for  their  country  an  affection  made  up  of  all 
their  other  affections. 

The  love  of  one's  country  is  called  Patriotism. 

It  is  not  merely  natural  to  be  patriotic ;  it  is  reason- 
able and  right.  Nearly  all  that  makes  life  pleasant  and 
desirable  comes  through  the  town  or  the  nation  to  which 
we  belong.  Thus  our  gratitude  should  make  them  dear 
to  us. 

Think  how  many  thousands  in  our  country  have  toiled 
for  us  !  They  have  made  roads  and  they  have  built 
churches    and    schoolhouses.     They    have    established 


1 44  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

mails  and  post-offices.  They  have  cultivated  farms  to 
provide  for  our  needs,  and  have  built  ships  that  cross 
the  ocean  to  bring  to  us  the  good  things  which  we  could 
not  produce  at  home.  They  have  provided  protection 
against  wrong-doers.  So,  if  we  sleep  in  peace,  and 
work  and  study  and  play  in  safety,  and  are  wise  and 
trained  in  the  various  arts  of  life,  it  is  to  the  town  and 
the  nation  that  we  owe  nearly  all  these  advantages. 

Then  too,  in  every  nation  such  good  results  have 
been  produced  at  great  cost  of  suffering  and  life.  It  is 
because  tJiere  have  been  patriots  who  have  loved  their 
coitntry  better  than  they  loved  themselves,  that  we  have  a 
country  that  we  can  love. 

The  American  especially  ought  to  love  his  country, 
because,  in  it,  some  of  these  results  are  reached  more 
perfectly  than  elsewhere.  There  is  no  country  in  which 
the  people  are  so  free,  and  in  which  the  freedom  of  one 
interferes  so  little  with  the  freedom  of  all  the  rest. 

We  are  so  accustomed  to  see  men  of  every  class  and 
condition  going  to  the  polls,  and  voting  for  what  are 
called  their  rulers,  though  more  truly  they  should  be 
called  the  servants  of  the  people,  that  it  seems  to  us  a 
wholly  natural  and  common  thing.  We  often  forget 
that  this  is  something  very  uncommon ;  and  that  there 
are  those  in  other  countries  who  look  with  longing  at 
the  freedom  which  we  enjoy. 

Such  liberty  is  extending  more  and  more  in  the  world, 
but  it  is  largely  through  the  example  of  our  country 
that  this  extension  of  liberty  is  accomplished. 

Our  liberty  and  the  other  blessings  that  go  with  it  have 


Patriotism.  I45 

been  bought  at  a  great  price.  No  nation  has  had  more 
splendid  heroes,  who  have  braved  all  danger  for  their 
country,  who  have  toiled  for  it,  and  suffered  and  died 
for  it  than  America. 

When  the  bells  are  ringing  and  the  cannon  are  firing 
on  the  Fourth  of  July,  you  must  not  think  merely  of  the 
noise  and  the  fun.  You  must  remember  those  who  on 
that  day  agreed  that  they  would  risk  their  lives  and 
everything  that  was  dear  to  them,  that  their  country 
might  be  free.  You  must  think  not  merely  of  those,  but 
of  those  also  who  at  other  times  of  peril  have  given 
themselves  for  their  nation's  good,  of  those  who  found  the 
land  a  wilderness,  and  suffered  pain  and  privation,  while 
they  made  the  beginning  of  a  nation.  You  must  think 
also  of  those  who  ever  since  that  time,  whenever  the 
liberty  or  the  unity  of  the  nation  was  in  peril,  have 
sprung  to  its  defence. 

These  heroes  are  more  in  number  than  we  can  begin 
to  name.  There  was  one,  however,  whose  name  is  so 
familiar  that  it  has  become  commonplace  to  us,  but 
who  was  one  of  the  greatest  heroes,  and  one  of  the  best 
men,  that  ever  lived.  I  mean  George  Washington. 
Through  the  whole  world,  his  name  stands  for  honor 
and  courage,  wisdom  and  patriotism.  You  must  not  let 
the  fact  that  his  name  is  so  common  make  you  forget 
that  there  are  few  heroes  of  history  that  deserve  honor 
so  truly  as  he. 

At  the  end  of  the  war  of  the  revolution,  Washington 
was  at  the  head  of  a  mighty  army,  and  the  object  of  the 
enthusiastic  love  of  the  whole  people.      He  might  easily 


146  Ethics  for   Young  People, 

have  made  of  himself  a  king  or  an  emperor.  It  was  a 
marvel  to  the  civilized  world  when  he  quietly  laid  down 
all  this  power.  He  twice  suffered  himself  to  be  chosen 
President ;  and  then  he  became  simply  a  private  citizen. 
This  seems  to  us  now  the  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world,  but  really  it  was  something  very  rare ;  and  gave 
him  a  fame  such  as  few  heroes  of  the  world  enjoy. 

You  cannot  realize,  as  those  of  us  do  who  remember 
it,  the  heroism  that  was  shown  in  the  war  which  pre- 
served the  union  of  our  states,  and  put  an  end  to  slavery 
in  our  country.  Young  men  gave  up  what  was  dearest 
to  them  in  life ;  mothers  sent  their  sons  to  the  war, 
hardly  hoping  to  see  them  again.  These  sacrifices  were 
made  for  the  sake  of  the  country  which  they  loved. 
You  must  remember  this  on  "■  Memorial  Day,"  and  not 
merely  look  upon  the  day  as  a  holiday,  with  a  show  of 
processions  with  flowers  and  music. 

There  have  been  heroes  in  peace  as  well  as  in  war ; 
men  who  have  conquered  the  wilderness,  who  have  up- 
held justice,  and  have  helped  on  whatever  was  good 
and  noble. 

We  ought,  then,  all  to  be  patriots,  and  love  the  coun- 
try which  has  done  so  much  for  us  and  at  the  cost  of 
so  many  true  lives. 

But  patriotism  is  not  merely  the  loving  of  one's  coun- 
try, and  the  being  proud  of  it.  It  has  its  duties  as  well 
as  its  pleasures.  We  should  not  be  contented  merely  to 
take  the  good  that  others  have  won  for  us,  doing  noth- 
ing ourselves  for  the  country  for  which  they  did  so 
much. 


Patriotism,  147 

There  are  those  who  are  unworthy  to  Hve  in  our 
country  because  they  are  not  wiUing  to  suffer  the  least 
inconvenience  on  its  account. 

There  are  those  who  are  among  the  most  prosperous 
in  the  land,  who  have  received  more  good  from  the 
country  than  most  others,  who  will  not  even  take  the 
trouble  to  go  to  the  polls  and  vote.  They  will  see  their 
city  misruled,  and  will  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  cast 
the  ballot  that  would  help  to  save  it. 

There  are  many  men  who  sell  their  votes.  Think  of 
all  the  cost  of  money  and  of  noble  lives  at  which  our 
liberty  has  been  won.  Think  how  in  many  parts  of  the 
world  men  are  looking  with  longing  at  the  liberty 
which  we  enjoy ;  yet  there  are  those  to  whom  this  hard- 
won  freedom  means  an  opportunity  to  make  a  little 
money  by  selling  their  vote. 

There  are  those  still  worse.  I  mean  those  who  find 
in  politics  an  opportunity  to  make  larger  gains  in 
meaner  ways.  They  buy  votes  and  sell  those  that  they 
have  bought.  They  make  bargains  and  "■  deals."  The 
welfare  of  the  country  does  not  concern  them.  They 
seek  only  their  own  gain. 

There  are  those  to  whom  the  light  laws  that  are  over 
us  seem  grievous.     They  rebel  against  all  restraint. 

There  are  those  who  stir  up  excitement  among  the 
people,  setting  class  against  class,  that  they  themselves 
may  be  advanced. 

These  things  I  name,  that  those  who  read  these 
chapters  may  resolve  that  when  they  are  old  enough  to 
have  the  rights  of  citizens,  they  will  use  them  as  patriots, 


148  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

and  refrain  from, and  oppose,  such  corruption  as  I  have 
described. 

There  are  other  ways  of  serving  the  country  besides 
those  that  I  have  named. 

All  the  private  virtues,  honesty  and  industry,  are  its 
best  helps.  Whatever  tends  to  make  men  wiser  and 
better  is  a  service  to  the  country. 

The  time  may  come,  though  I  hope  it  will  not, 
when  it  will  be  necessary  to  repeat  the  sacrifices  of  the 
past;  to  give  money  and  life  and  what  is  dearer  than 
life,  that  the  nation  may  be  preserved.  If  that  time 
shall  come,  meet  it  as  heroes  met  it  in  the  past. 

The  country  will  one  day  be  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
are  now  boys  and  girls.  Serve  it  and  guard  it,  and  do 
all  that  you  can  to  promote  its  good. 


Kindness  to  Animals.  ,  149 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

KINDNESS   TO   ANIMALS. 

We  have  considered  the  importance  of  kindness  and 
sympathy  towards  the  persons  with  whom  we  have  to 
do.  We  should  show  a  Hke  sympathy  and  kindness 
towards  the  dumb  animals,  which  have,  also,  their  place 
in  our  lives. 

We  all  know  that  the  animals  can  suffer  as  truly  as 
men  can,  but  there  are  many  who  do  not  realize  this. 
If  they  did  realize  it,  I  think  there  would  be  less  cruelty 
to  them. 

A  young  man  once  told  me  that,  when  he  was  a  boy, 
he  liked  to  torment  living  creatures,  simply  for  the  fun 
of  the  thing;  but  when  some  one  explained  to  him  that 
they  really  suffered,  and  that  the  movements  which 
amused  him  were  expressions  of  pain,  he  had  a  horror 
of  such  cruelty  and  never  practised  it  again. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  we  should  be  kind  to 
animals.  One  is  because  tJiey  are  so  mnch  in  onr  power. 
The  very  fact  of  their  weakness  and  our  strength  should 
make  us  merciful  to  them.  To  take  advantage  of  our 
power  is  mean.  It  is  like  tormenting  a  child  because  it 
cannot  help  itself. 

Another  reason  why  we  should  be  kind  to  animals  is 
that  so  often  we  have  to  take  their  lives.  They  are 
wholly  at  our  mercy.     Some  we  have  to  use  for  food. 


150  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

Others  are  injurious  or  unclean,  and  we  have,  in  self- 
defence,  to  destroy  them.  This  fact  should  give  us  a 
certain  tenderness,  so  that  we  should  avoid  giving  them 
useless  pain. 

So  far  as  the  domestic  animals  are  concerned,  we  owe 
so  much  to  them  that  gratitude  sJiould  make  us  kind. 

Here  is  a  man,  for  instance,  whose  horse  performs  the 
work  by  which  he  earns  money  to  live.  One  would 
think  that  gratitude,  if  not  self-interest,  would  make  him 
kind.  How  often  the  horse  is  half-fed.  Perhaps  the 
poor  owner  cannot  always  help  this.  But  he  can  help 
beating  him,  and  overloading  him,  and  making  him 
travel  when  he  is  so  lame  that  he  cannot  step  without 
suffering. 

Those  who  do  not  mean  to  be  unkind  are  often  cruel 
by  thoughtlessness.  They  leave  the  horse  uncovered  in 
the  cold.  They  use  too  short  a  check-rein.  They  use 
a  check-rein  on  a  long  journey,  or  with  a  heavy  load,  or 
when  going  up  hill.  In  none  of  these  cases  should  any 
check-rein  be  used. 

Think  how  a  dog  loves  its  master,  often  in  spite  of 
cruelty ;    and  yet  how  often  is  the  master  cruel ! 

The  chief  reason  for  kindness  to  animals  is,  however, 
that  which  I  named  first:  the  fact  that  they  really  suffer. 
What  sort  of  man  or  boy  can  that  be  who  can  think  it 
fun  to  cause  suffering?  One  who  can  cause  this  should 
himself  be  made  to  suffer. 

One  good  way  to  gain  sympathy  for  animals  is  to 
study  about  tJiem  and  to  observe  them.  One  who  does 
this  can  hardly  fail  to  get  interested  in  them.     He  will 


Kindness  to  Anhnals.  15 1 

find  so  much  intelligence,  so  many  curious  ways  of 
living,  so  much  devotion  and  kindliness,  that  he  will 
sympathize  with  them  in  spite  of  himself  Even  the 
fiercest  beasts,  for  instance,  have  a  devotion  for  their 
young,  and  will  sometimes  die  in  their  defence. 

One  should  not  only  be  kind  to  animals  one's  self; 
one  should  so  far  as  possible  prevent  cruelty  towards 
them.  If  boys  are  persecuting  some  unhappy  creature, 
if  a  man  is  unmerciful  to  his  horse,  it  is  a  noble  thing  to 
interfere,  if  one  can,  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed.  Many 
a  boy  or  girl  has  thus  done  something  to  check  the 
cruelty  that  is  shown  to  some  dumb  beast,  and  thus  to 
lessen,  by  so  much,  the  suffering  of  the  world. 


152  Et/iics  for    Young  People. 


CHAPTER   XXXIX. 

COMPANIONS. 

We  have  considered  certain  things  which  it  is  well  to 
do,  and  others  which  it  is  well  not  to  do.  We  have  now 
in  a  few  chapters  to  consider  certain  helps  and  hin- 
drances to  right  doing. 

Nothing  is  more  important  in  this  respect  than  the 
kind  of  companions  that  one  has.  If  a  young  man 
"■  goes,"  as  we  say,  '*  to  the  bad,"  it  is  almost  always  on 
account  of  the  kind  of  companions  that  he  has  had. 
On  the  other  hand,  companions  may  be  as  helpful  as 
they  may  be  misleading. 

The  reason  for  this  influence  of  others  is  that  man  is 
an  imitative  beijig;  that  is,  he  tends  to  do  what  he  sees 
people  around  him  doing. 

This  imitativeness  has  been  one  of  the  greatest  helps 
in  the  development  of  the  world.  If  a  young  child 
learned  only  what  it  was  directly  taught,  it  would  learn 
comparatively  little.  Its  chief  education  consists  in 
seeing  what  those  about  it  do,  and  in  trying  to  do  the 
same ;  and  this  kind  of  education  goes  on,  more  or  less, 
as  long  as  we  live. 

So  the  lower  and  more  barbarous  peoples  have  been 
raised  by  imitating  the  manner  of  life  of  more  civilized 
peoples. 

When  we  think  of  it,  we  see  that  this  tendency  to  imi- 


Compajiions.  1 5  3 

tate  is  extremely  natural.  I  will  state  two  or  three 
things  that  will  illustrate  this. 

A  man  has  a  tendency  to  perform  any  action  or  to 
speak  any  word  of  which  he  thinks.  If  a  boy  really 
thinks  of  striking  another,  he  has  a  certain  tendency  to 
strike  him.  The  reason  he  does  not  always  do  it  is, 
that  he  thinks  of  other  things  at  the  same  time.  He 
thinks  of  possible  punishment  from  parent  or  teacher ; 
or  he  thinks  that  the  boy  will  possibly  strike  back ;  or 
some  regard  for  the  boy  may  come  into  his  mind ;  or  he 
may  think  that  it  would  be  a  low  and  mean  thing  to  do. 

If  he  does  strike  the  other  boy,  it  is  because  all  these 
other  thoughts  for  the  moment  disappear;  and  the 
thought  of  the  blow,  and  of  the  offence  which  caused 
this  thought,  alone  remain. 

Now,  in  any  occasion  that  may  arise  where  we  have  to 
speak  or  act,  sometJiing  that  we  have  heard  others  say  or 
do  under  similar  circumstances  naturally  comes  into  the 
mind,  and  with  it  comes  a  tendency  to  say  or  do  the 
same. 

Suppose,  for  instance,  a  boy  has  for  his  companions 
those  who,  when  they  are  angry  or  anything  goes  wrong 
with  them,  use  profane  speech.  When  he  is  angry,  or 
when  anything  goes  wrong  with  him,  the  expressions 
that  they  use  are  the  first  that  come  to  his  thought, 
and  with  them  comes  a  tendency  to  use  the  same. 
When  he  first  went  with  them,  he  was  perhaps  offended 
or  shocked  by  this  kind  of  speech  ;  but  familiarity  has 
taken  away  much  or  all  of  that  feeling,  so  that,  when 
these   words   come   to   his   thought,   the   feeling  which 


1 54  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

would  keep  them  back  has  been  very  much  lessened, 
if  it  has  not  been  wholly  destroyed. 

What  is  true  of  profanity  is  true  of  any  other  kind  of 
speech  or  act.  It  is  difficult  for  a  young  person  who 
lives  much  among  those  whose  speech  is  faulty  to  con- 
tinue to  talk  grammatically.  This  example  shows  how 
we  tend  to  imitate  our  companions. 

Much  is  said  in  these  days  about  "hypnotism."  We 
understand  by  hypnotism  the  fact  that  one  person  may 
be  brought  so  under  the  influence  of  another,  as  to 
say  and  do,  and  even  to  see  and  think,  only  what  the 
other  suggests.  If,  for  instance,  the  other  suggests  that 
there  is  a  cow  in  the  room,  the  hypnotized  person  will 
see  a  cow  in  the  room,  and  will  perhaps  make  great 
efforts  to  drive  it  away.  It  is  doubtful  if  some  grave 
crimes  have  not  been  committed  in  this  manner. 

In  all  this  we  see  an  exaggerated  form  of  the  kind  of 
influence  of  which  we  have  been  speaking.  The  sugges- 
tion has  such  power,  in  this  case,  because  it  alone  occu- 
pies the  mind.  The  suggestions  made  by  our  ordinary 
companions,  simply  perhaps  by  their  way  of  speaking 
and  acting,  tend  to  have  a  like  influence.  They  control 
us  less,  because  other  influences  are  working  in  other 
directions ;  but  almost  every  young  person  who  falls 
into  bad  habits  shows  that  these  suggestions  may  some- 
times get  as  complete  control  of  a  person  as  is  the  case 
in  hypnotism. 

Besides  what  are  called  "bad  habits,"  there  are  other 
habits  hardly  less  bad,  that  are  caught  from  one's  com- 
panions.     Such  are  habits  of  frivolity,  of  unkind  gossip, 


Companions.  155 

and  whatever  may  tend  to  lower  the  standard  of  our 
Hves. 

Good  habits  of  Hfc,  of  thought,  and  of  feeling  are 
helped  as  truly  by  good  companionship  as  they  are 
hindered  by  bad. 

If  the  nature  of  the  companions  among  whom  we  live 
has  such  an  incalculable  influence  over  us,  we  see  what 
power  we  have  to  shape  our  lives  by  the  right  choice  of 
our  companions. 

We  should  remember,  too,  that  we  may  as  truly  have 
influence  over  our  companions  as  they  over  us.  We 
should  dread,  more  than  almost  anything  else,  the 
thought  that  another  has  been  made  worse  by  associat- 
ing with  us.  To  injure  the  nature  of  another  is  to  do 
about  as  much  harm  as  it  is  possible  for  us  to  do  in  this 
world. 


1 56  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

CHAPTER   XL. 

READING. 

There  is  a  companionship  that  may  be  more  helpful 
than  any  other ;  that  is,  the  companionship  of  books. 
It  is  not  always  easy  to  meet  the  persons  that  we  should 
most  gladly  choose  as  companions.  In  these  days,  how- 
ever, it  is  possible  for  almost  every  one  to  obtain  good 
books. 

As  books  may  be  the  most  helpful  of  companions,  so 
they  may  be  the  most  harmful.  As  some  books  are 
better  than  our  ordinary  associates,  so  other  books  are 
worse  than  our  companions,  and  have  a  power  to  cor- 
rupt that  is  all  the  greater  because  the  books  may  fol- 
low us  into  our  most  lonely  and  quiet  hours. 

Do  not  be  afraid  to  read  books  that  require  a  little 
thought.  How  the  muscles  of  the  body  grow  soft  and 
flabby  when  no  strain  is  put  upon  them  !  So  the  men- 
tal fibres  become  relaxed  and  weak,  when  no  strain  is 
put  upon  them. 

The  mind  is  weakened  also,  rather  than  strengthened, 
by  reading  too  inafiy  books.  One  goes  to  the  library  to 
get  a  book  that  he  has  never  read.  If  it  is  a  book  that 
is  just  published,  he  is  all  the  more  pleased.  He  hurries 
through  it,  and  then  goes  to  the  library  again  to  get 
another  book  that  is  new  to  him. 

In  this  way  he  gets  very  little  good  out  of  any  of  the 


Reading.  157 

books  he  reads.  What  he  reads  passes  through  the 
mind  so  rapidly,  and  is  so  soon  replaced  by  something 
else,  that  it  makes  very  little  definite  impression.  The 
mind  gets  so  used  to  looking  out  for  something  fresh, 
that  it  loses  the  interest,  and  thus  the  power,  to  grasp 
any  thought  or  any  information  so  as  to  hold  it  fast  and 
make  it  its  own. 

We  should  laugh  at  a  little  girl  who  should  say  that 
she  knew  how  to  sew,  when  all  she  did  was  to  draw  the 
thread  through  the  cloth,  so  that  nothing  remained  of 
all  that  she  was  doing.  Should  we  say  that  anyone  who 
forgets  as  fast  as  he  reads,  knows  how  to  read,  any  bet- 
ter than  that  little  girl  knew  how  to  sew? 

There  is  a  proverb  that  says,  "Beware  of  the  man  of 
one  book."  It  means  that  a  man  who  has  taken  a  good 
book  and  read  it,  and  re-read  it,  so  as  to  get  the  mastery 
of  it,  will  have  vastly  more  power  than  another,  who 
skims  over  one  book  eager  to  get  hold  of  the  next. 
Plutarch's  Lives,  for  instance,  thus  studied,  has  formed 
a  great  many  heroes. 

Reading  affects  the  moral  nature  and  one's  habit  of 
feeling,  for  good  or  for  evil,  as  much  as  it  does  the 
mind. 

Many  a  boy  has  been  utterly  ruined  by  reading  low 
novels ;  and  many  who  have  not  been  absolutely  ruined 
have  received  a  taint  which  has  corrupted  to  some  ex- 
tent their  lives. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  a  man  dates  the  beginning 
of  his  really  manly  life  from  the  reading  of  some  book 
that  stimulated  his  best  nature. 


1 58  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

The  improvement  or  the  lowering  of  one's  taste  is  of 
less  importance,  but  still  of  real  importance.  It  is  a 
great  thing  in  the  world  to  be  able  to  enjoy  the  best. 
Would  it  not  be  a  pity  to  go  to  a  picture  gallery  that 
contains  some  of  the  noblest  pictures  in  the  world,  and 
find  one's  self  unable  to  enjoy  any  except  those  that 
were  low,  or  coarse,  or  worthless  ?  So,  in  a  world  that 
contains  so  many  noble  books,  it  is  very  hard  if  one  has 
trained  his  taste  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  able  to  enjoy 
only  the  poorest. 

It  is  this  corruption  of  the  taste  which  is  one  of  the 
ways  in  which  the  reading  of  poor  books  harms  the 
most.  One  thinks  that  he  will,  for  a  while,  read 
wretched  novels,  and  after  that  he  will  take  something 
better.  He  finds,  however,  often  that  it  is  too  late.  He 
has  spoiled  his  taste  for  what  is  good. 

There  are  so  many  public  libraries  in  these  days,  and 
books  are  so  cheap,  that  every  one  of  us  has  the  best 
books  at  his  command,  as  well  as  the  worst.  It  is  pleas- 
ant to  think  how  many  are  making  their  lives  better  and 
stronger  and  nobler  by  such  means.  It  is  sad  to  think 
how  many  are  ruining  their  minds  and  corrupting  their 
hearts  out  of  this  abundance. 

Try  then  to  get  hold  of  books  that  are  worth  reading. 
If  you  read  a  novel,  take  one  that  is  strong  and  pure. 
One  might  as  well  go  to  the  dram-shop  or  the  opium 
den,  as  to  devote  himself  to  reading  a  kind  of  novel  that 
is  only  too  common. 

Then  there  are  the  works  on  popular  science  that  will 
tell  you  about  this  wonderful  world ;   and  there  are  the 


Reading.  1 59 

stories  of  great  men  that  will  show  you  how  to  make 
your  life  noble ;  there  is  the  history  of  the  past  which, 
if  it  is  well  told,  is,  to  an  unspoiled  mind,  more  inter- 
esting than  many  a  novel.  In  a  word,  there  is  no  limit 
to  the  healthful  and  helpful  books  that  are  at  your  com- 
mand. In  the  midst  of  these,  what  a  pity  it  would  be 
if  you  should  take  only  those  that  would  do  you  harm. 


i6o  Ethics  for   Yoimg  People, 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

THE    IMAGINATION. 

The  mind  is  always  busy. 

You  see  a  boy  sitting  on  the  door-step  or  lying  under 
a  tree.  You  say,  perhaps,  that  he  is  doing  nothing. 
He  is  doing  something.  In  one  way,  he  is  pretty  busy. 
He  is  thinking. 

I  do  not  mean  that  he  is  thinking  seriously  about 
something  that  interests  him.  I  mean  simply  that 
there  is  passing  through  his  mind  a  stream  of  thoughts 
more  or  less  clear,  and  of  fancies  more  or  less  distinct. 

Perhaps,  he  is  lazily  recalling  what  he  did  yesterday, 
or  planning  what  he  will  do  to-morrow.  Perhaps,  he  is 
idly  watching  something  that  is  going  on  about  him. 
Perhaps,  if  you  should  interrupt  him,  and  ask  what  he 
was  thinking  about,  he  might  really  not  know  what  to 
say,  because  all  had  been  so  vague.  His  wits,  as  we 
say,  had  been  "  wool  gathering."  But  his  mind  had 
been  busy,  even  if  he  has  forgotten  what  it  was  busy 
about. 

So  if  people  are  working,  the  man  with  his  saw  or 
hoe,  the  woman  with  her  broom  or  her  needle,  their 
thoughts  are  busy  all  the  time.  Sometimes  they  are 
thinking  about  their  work,  sometimes  about  something 
very  different ;  but  their  minds  are  never  perfectly  at 
rest. 


The  Imagination.  i6i 

It  is  strange  to  think  of  all  these  minds  in  the  world 
always  active,  of  our  own  minds  always  active,  at  least 
when  we  are  awake ;  possibly  when  we  are  asleep. 

Surely  it  is  very  important  for  us  to  consider  what 
these  busy  minds  are  busied  about,  for  nothing  can  af- 
fect our  lives  so  much  as  this  constant  activity  of  our 
thought. 

A  person  sometimes  "  talks  to  himself"  It  is  a  fool- 
ish habit,  for  he  sometimes  lets  out  secrets,  and  is  over- 
heard saying  unpleasant  things  about  the  people  who 
are  present.  But  all  this  thinking  that  never  stops  is 
really  a  conversation  with  ourselves. 

There  is,  then,  a  companionship  with  ourselves  that  is 
closer  and  more  important  than  that  with  persons  or 
books. 

How  important  it  is  that  the  self  with  which  we  con- 
verse so  constantly  should  be  wise,  pure,  and  well  mean- 
ing. 

If  any  bad  company  does  harm,  the  self,  when  it  is 
not  thus  wise  and  pure  and  well-meaning,  does  more 
harm  than  any  other  companion. 

In  all  this  intercourse  with  ourselves,  nothing  is  more 
important  than  what  comes  to  us  through  the  imagina- 
tion. 

As  was  implied  above,  there  is  a  succession  of  pictures 
passing  through  the  mind  with  other  thoughts  ;  perhaps 
there  are  more  pictures  than  any  other  kind  of  thoughts. 
These  pictures  are,  for  the  most  part,  drawn  very  par- 
tially and  imperfectly  ;  but  they  are  distinct  enough  to 
let  us  know  what  they  stand  for,  and  to  interest  our  minds. 


1 62  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

These  pictures  are  of  what  we  have  seen,  of  what  we 
have  read,  of  what  we  have  fancied,  of  what  we  hope 
to  see  or  to  do,  and  of  what  we  would  Hke  to  do,  when 
there  is  perhaps  no  hope  of  our  doing  it. 

There  is  one  very  singular  thing  about  these  pictures. 
The  more  interested  we  are  in  them,  or  the  oftener 
we  turn  to  them,  the  more  distinct  do  they  become.  It 
is  as  if,  in  a  picture  gallery,  the  paintings  that  the 
owner  loved  and  that  he  visited  every  day  should 
stand  out  bright  and  clear;  while  those  for  which  he 
cared  little  should  fade  away. 

In  going  through  such  a  gallery  we  should  learn 
exactly  what  the  tastes  of  the  owner  are.  So  if  we 
could  just  glance  into  one  of  these  mental  picture  gal- 
leries, we  could  tell,  better  than  in  almost  any  other  way, 
what  sort  of  a  person  it  is  whose  mind  we  are  looking 
into. 

We  could  tell  not  only  what  the  person  is :  we  could 
tell  something  of  what  he  is  going  to  be ;  for  in  this 
picture  gallery  the  future  is  often  represented  before  it 
becomes  a  fact.  Indeed  it  is  the  picture  that  tends  to 
give  its  shape  to  the  life. 

Temptation  gains  more  power  through  these  pictures 
of  the  imagination  than  in  almost  any  other  way. 

A  man  sometimes  does  wrong  by  a  sudden  impulse, 
as  when  he  strikes  another  in  a  moment  of  unreasoning 
rage ;  but  for  the  most  part  the  imagination  prepares 
the  way  with  its  picturing. 

A  young  man,  for  instance,  is  tempted  to  take  money 
that  does  not  belong  to  him.     At  first  it  is  not  a  tempta- 


The  Imagination.  163 

tion  ;  it  is  merely  a  fancy.  He  thinks  what  a  nice  thing 
it  would  be  to  have  the  money,  and  pictures  the  life  he 
would  lead  with  it.  After  this  sort  of  imagery  has 
pleased  him  for  a  while  till  it  has  grown  so  distinct  as  to 
haunt  him,  comes  the  vision  of  taking  the  money,  the 
representation  of  one  way  or  another  in  which  it  might 
be  done  without  discovery,  until  these  pictures  also 
haunt  him.  We  have  already  seen,  in  a  former  chapter, 
the  way  that  suggestions  affect  the  life.  These  sugges- 
tions of  the  imagination  gain  more  and  more  power, 
until  at  last  they  fill  the  mind,  and  the  man  is  almost 
forced  to  perform  the  act  which  he  has  gone  over  so 
often  in  his  imagination.  Through  this  repetition  the 
deed  has  lost  its  repulsiveness,  and  has  come  to  seem 
quite  a  matter  of  course. 

What  is  true  of  this  crime  is  true  of  other  crimes  and 
faults.  The  mind  plays  with  the  picture  of  them,  until 
suddenly  the  picture  has  become  a  fact. 

When  evil  imaginations  do  not  become  embodied  in 
outward  act,  they  yet  of  necessity  corrupt  and  degrade 
the  mind.  Discontent,  envy,  anger,  impurity,  all  nour- 
ish themselves  by  these  pictures  of  the  imagination, 
until  the  mind  has  become  controlled  and  debased  by 
them. 

If  evil  imaginations  have  such  power,  when  the  im- 
agination works  purely  and  nobly  it  may  become 
equally  a  power  of  good.  The  picturing  of  kindly  and 
magnanimous  acts  may  shape  the  life  to  their  like- 
ness. 

A  healthy  imagination  is  also  a  source  of  true  pleas- 


164  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

ure.  By  reading  carefully,  by  keeping  one's  eyes  open 
in  the  world,  one  may  store  the  mind  with  pictures  that 
will  later  bring  satisfaction. 

We  should  train  the  imagination  to  reproduce  what 
we  see.  Most  of  us,  when  we  see  a  beautiful  landscape 
or  picture,  go  away  with  the  vaguest  possible  remem- 
brance of  it.  It  is  a  great  help  to  re-picturing  in  the 
imagination,  to  be  able  to  draw  or  paint.  One  who  can 
do  this  has  learned  both  to  see  and  to  re-produce.  It  is 
a  good  plan  to  look  at  an  object,  and  then  try  to  draw 
it  from  memory.  If  we  cannot  do  this,  it  is  well  to 
close  the  eyes  and  try  to  recall  a  beautiful  object  that 
we  have  seen,  and  then  to  look  at  it  again,  and  observe 
how  far  our  mental  picture  corresponds  with  the  fact. 
In  this  way  we  can  train  the  imagination  to  remember, 
and  make  fine  additions  to  our  mental  picture  gallery. 

In  educating  children,  it  is  very  important  that  we 
should  give  them  opportunities  to  enrich  their  minds 
with  pictures  of  something  fair  and  pleasant. 

There  remains  to  be  spoken  of,  a  possible  evil  that 
may  spring  unawares  from  the  imagination.  The  life 
may  be  harmed  by  living  too  much  in  the  world  of  the 
imagination.  The  dreaming,  even  of  good  acts,  may  take 
the  place  of  the  performing  of  them,  while  the  habit  of 
revery,  if  unrestrained,  too  often  assumes  a  form  that  is 
harmful  to  the  strength  and  purity  of  the  life. 


Industry.  165 

CHAPTER    XLII. 

INDUSTRY. 

Industry  might  well  be  urged  as  a  duty.  I  wish, 
however,  now  to  speak  of  it  chiefly  as  an  aid  in  accom- 
plishing other  duties.  Few  things  are  more  helpful 
towards  right  living  than  industry,  and  few  more  con- 
ducive to  wrong  living  than  idleness. 

When  we  speak  of  idleness,  we  must  remember  that 
no  one  is  perfectly  idle,  excepting  when  asleep,  and 
possibly  not  even  then.  W«  are  always  busy  about 
something  or  other.  If  the  hands  and  the  feet  are  idle, 
the  mind  is  always  active.  If  it  is  not  busy  with  study, 
or  with  some  other  useful  occupation,  it  is  busy  with 
dreams  and  fancies.  Even  the  Neapolitan  beggars,  lying 
stretched  in  the  sun  or  the  shadow,  are  talking  or  think- 
ing or  dreaming  about  something. 

By  industry  we  mean  activity  that  is  regular,  and  de- 
voted to  the  carrying  out  of  some  purpose.  More 
definitely,  it  is  activity  that  is  designed  to  be  useful  to 
ourselves  or  to  others.  It  is  thus  a  regulated  activity 
by  which  our  own  welfare,  or  that  of  others,  may  be 
furthered. 

We  are  apt  to  think,  or  at  least  to  feel,  that  the  neces- 
sity of  working  regularly  is  a  hardship.  Because  as  we 
get  tired  with  our  work  we  look  forward  with  eagerness 
to  the  time  of  rest,  we  are  apt  to  think  that  the  pleas- 
antest  life  would  be  one  in  which  it  should  be  all  rest. 


1 66  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

A  little  thought,  however,  will  show  us  that  the  neces- 
sity of  regular  occupation  which  is  laid  upon  most  of  us, 
is  one  of  the  great  blessings  of  our  lives. 

Regular  industry  is  helpful  to  the  habit  of  self-com- 
mand, which,  as  we  have  already  seen,  is  of  fundamental 
importance  in  our  lives.  Industry  is  helpful  towards 
this  in  various  ways. 

In  the  first  place  industry  is  helpful  to  self-command 
because  tJie  life  is  made  regular  by  it.  Body  and  mind 
are  by  this  regularity  disciplined  into  a  certain  degree 
of  orderliness.  It  is  as  much  easier  controlling  body 
and  mind  when  they  are  in  suoh  training,  as  it  is  for  an 
officer  to  control  a  body  of  trained  troops  instead  of  an. 
undisciplined  mob. 

Again  a  certain  amount  of  activity  is  more  easily  con- 
trolled  than  inertia.  You  know  that  a  ship  must  be 
going  one  or  two  knots  an  hour  or  she  will  not  mind  her 
helm.  She  must  be  making  this  way  in  her  own  course 
moved  by  the  wind  or  steam  or  some  other  motive  force. 
A  ship  that  is  merely  drifting  cannot  be  steered.  Now 
in  idleness  we  are  simply  drifting.  The  mind  is  lazily 
busy,  but  it  moves  according  to  any  whim  or  impulse. 
Thus  self-control  becomes  difficult  if  not  impossible. 

In  idleness  one  is  thus  left  to  be  more  easily  the  prey 
of  any  temptation.  When  we  are  busy  about  something 
that  interests  us,  this  interest  tends  to  keep  out  of  the 
mind  tempting  thoughts ;  or  if  they  enter,  the  mind, 
through  this  interest,  being  like  a  ship  under  good  head- 
way, keeps  its  course  undisturbed  by  them.  In  idleness, 
however,  the   mind  is  more  at  the  mercy  of  whatever 


Industry,  167 

may  occur.     Thus  idleness  is  the  great  foe  to   upright- 
ness, purity,  and  earnestness  of  life. 

It  may  seem  more  strange  to  be  told  that  industry  is 
one  of  the  best  helps  toivards  contentment.  In  fact,  how- 
ever, it  is  the  idle  who  are  apt  to  be  not  only  the  most 
vicious,  but  the  most  unhappy.  There  being  no  regu- 
lar vent  for  the  activity  of  the  life,  the  energies  them- 
selves tend  to  wear  upon  the  life  itself.  The  mind,  not 
regularly  occupied,  is  open  to  all  sorts  of  discontents  and 
envyings.  Thus  it  dreams  of  what  might  be  and  com- 
pares it  with  what  is,  and  makes  itself  wretched. 

Indeed,  activity  is  one  of  the  greatest  sources  of  hap- 
piness. In  industry  part  of  our  energies,  at  least,  are 
regularly  employed.  However  sweet  rest  may  be  in  its 
place,  idleness  soon  becomes  a  burden. 

The  man  indeed  is  happy  who,  when  he  has  leisure, 
knows  how  to  give  himself  regular  occupation.     Most 
"of  us  however  do  not  knoiv  how  to  employ  ourselves^  and 
it  is  well  that  we  should  be  employed. 

It  requires  more  genius  to  use  leisure  than  to  use 
wealth.  It  is  very  important  that  the  young  should 
provide  interests  for  themselves,  in  studies  or  in  philan- 
thropic activity,  so  that,  if  later  in  life  they  have  leisure, 
it  may  not  lie  too  heavily  on  their  hands. 

Industry  is  essential  for  that  usefulness  by  which  each 
man  may  fill  his  place  in  the  world.  The  lazy,  like  the 
wicked,  may  be  made  useful.  The  Spartans  used  to  send 
a  drunken  slave  through  the  city  that  the  sight  of  his 
folly  and  degradation  might  disgust  young  men  with  in- 
temperance.    He  was  made   useful ;   he  did  not  make 


1 68  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

himself  useful.     Every  one  should  try  to  make  himself 
useful. 

From  all  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  necessity  of  labor 
is  something  at  which  we  should  rather  rejoice  than 
complain,  and  that  habits  of  industry  are  the  great  help- 
ers to  virtue,  happiness,  and  usefulness. 


Habit,  169 


CHAPTER   XLIII. 

HABIT. 

In  speaking  of  the  influence  of  companions,  I  said 
that  a  man  tends  to  imitate  the  persons  by  whom  he  is 
surrounded ;  and  we  saw  that  while  this  tendency  may 
work  harm,  it  may  also  work  much  good :  and  that,  in 
fact,  the  development  of  civilization  has  been  largely 
dependent  upon  this  tendency. 

Most  of  all,  a  man  tends  to  imitate  Jiimself.  The  fact 
that  he  has  done  a  thing  once,  in  a  certain  way,  makes 
it  easier  for  him  to  do  it  again  in  the  same  way.  The 
oftener  this  is  repeated,  the  more  fixed  does  the  habit 
become.  At  last  he  cannot  do  the  thing  in  a  different 
way  without  great  effort.  Finally  it  may  become  almost 
impossible  for  him  to  do  it  in  a  different  way. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  the  force  of  habit  in  little 
things.  Through  these  one  can  most  easily  get  an 
idea  of  its  real  power. 

Notice  its  power  in  such  a  little  matter  as  putting 
on  one's  clothes,  one's  coat,  for  instance.  Almost 
every  one  in  doing  this  always  puts  the  same  arm  first 
into  the  sleeve.  With  some  it  is  the  right  arm  and  with 
some  it  is  the  left.  Probably  very  few,  if  they  were 
asked,  could  tell  which  arm  they  put  in  first;  but  as 
soon  as  they  undertake  to  do  the  thing,  the  arm  which 
commonly  goes  first  makes  its  movement ;   and  it  is  only 


1 70  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

by  a  strong  act  of  will  that  it  can  be  made  to  give  way 
to  the  other. 

Consider,  again,  the  handwriting.  This  depends  in 
part  upon  the  structure  of  the  hand,  and  perhaps  also 
upon  one's  mental  tendencies  ;  but  habit  has  a  great  deal 
to  do  with  it ;  and  we  all  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  dis- 
guise one's  hand.  Then,  too,  consider  how  easily  we 
write  with  the  right  hand,  and  how  hard  it  is  to  write 
with  the  left.  When  the  right  hand,  however,  has  be- 
come disabled,  a  man,  after  long  effort,  can  make  his 
left  hand  write  as  easily  as  the  right  ever  did. 

Observe,  farther,  how  skill  is  acquired  in  any  handi- 
work, so  that  at  last  the  work  goes  on  better  when  we 
are  not  thinking  of  it,  than  when  we  attend  to  what  we 
are  doing.  The  fingers  of  the  skilful  pianist  take  care 
of  themselves,  and  old  ladies  can  read  as  they  knit. 
So  strong  does  habit,  as  the  result  of  training,  become, 
that  it  is  said  to  be  impossible  for  a  good  swimmer  to 
drown  himself,  unless  he  be  tied  hand  and  foot.  By 
habit  that  has  become  an  instinct,  the  body  practises 
the  lesson  that  it  has  learned;  and  the  man  who  has 
thrown  himself  into  the  water  swims  in  spite  of  himself. 

Notice,  now,  the  good  results  of  this  tendency  of  habits 
to  become  fixed.  In  some  cases,  like  those  to  which  I 
have  referred,  the  life  of  the  person  is,  in  a  sense,  doubled. 
As  was  just  said,  the  old  ladies  knit  and  read  or  talk  at 
the  same  time.  So  in  very  many  things,  the  body  that 
has  been  trained  does  the  work  while  the  mind  is  left 
free  to  busy  itself  as  it  will. 

Another  great  advantage  that  springs  from  the  fixity 


Habit  171 

of  habits  is  found  in  the  fact  that,  by  means  of  this,  our 
lives  may  make  real  progress.  What  we  have  gained  is 
secured  to  us. 

Think  how  hard  it  would  be  if  we  had  continually  to 
start  again  from  the  beginning.  How  the  soldier  shrinks 
when  he  first  goes  into  a  battle ;  how  gladly  he  would 
flee!  It  is  said  that  green  soldiers  are  sometimes  placed 
alternately  with  those  that  have  been  seasoned  in  many 
a  fight,  that  the  stability  of  the  veterans  may  keep  the 
raw  recruits  in  their  place.  The  old  soldiers  have  got 
so  in  the  habit  of  marching  and  standing  as  they  are 
told,  that  it  has  become  with  them  a  matter  of  course. 

Consider,  too,  how  a  man  who  is  in  the  habit  of 
handling  money  lets  it  pass  through  his  hands  with 
hardly  a  thought  of  the  possibility  of  keeping  any  of  it. 
In  such  cases  habit  may  sometimes  be  a  better  safeguard 
than  principle  that  has  not  hardened  into  habit.  Prin- 
ciple untrained  may  sometimes  give  way  to  a  temptation 
which  habit  would  withstand. 

This  fact  applies  to  everything  that  we  do,  and  to 
every  relation  of  our  lives.  We  can  make  a  habit  of 
honesty,  of  industry,  of  kindliness,  of  attention,  of  cour- 
tesy, and  of  whatever  we  will.  Indeed,  Aristotle,  one  of 
the  wisest  men  of  antiquity,  defined  virtue  as  a  habit  of 
rightdoing. 

Consider  what  power  we  have  thus  over  our  lives. 
We  shape  them  to  a  large  extent  as  we  choose,  and  then, 
through  habit,  they  tend  to  harden  into  the  shape  that 
we  have  given  them,  as  the  plaster  hardens  into  the 
shape  which  the  artist  has  chosen. 


1/2  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

The  matter  has,  very  obviously,  another  side. 
Bad  habits  form  as  readily  as  good  ones.  I  am  not 
sure  that  they  do  not  form  more  readily  than  good  ones, 
because  virtues  require  more  effort  than  faults.  We 
drift  into  faults ;  but  to  make  the  best  life,  we  have  to 
take  control  of  it  and  guide  it. 

Think,  now,  how  many  bad  habits  are  formed, — 
habits  of  inattention,  of  carelessness,  fretfulness,  of  evil 
speaking,  of  selfishness,  and  others  that  are  even  worse. 
I  have  in  another  place  spoken  of  the  habit  of  drunk- 
enness, which  comes  on  so  quietly  that  one  does  not 
suspect  it  until  it  may  be  too  late. 

Indeed,  a  bad  habit  is  the  last  thing  that  most  of  us 
are  afraid  of.  We  think  that  we  are  acting  always  from 
our  own  choice,  that  it  is  no  matter-  what  we  do  now, 
because  another  time,  whenever  we  wish,  we  can  do  dif- 
ferently. But  all  the  while  a  certain  habit  is  forming 
and  hardening,  until  at  last  we  find  ourselves  almost 
helpless.  Thus,  even  our  tastes,  our  amusements,  our 
selection  of  books,  the  tendency  even  of  our  most 
secret  thoughts,  are  becoming  fixed,  and  we  are  becom- 
ing permanently  the  persons  we  meant  to  be  only  for 
the  moment. 

If  the  artist  takes  such  pains  with  the  plaster  that  he 
is  forming,  so  that  it  may  harden  into  a  shape  of  beauty, 
what  care  should  we  take  of  the  habits  which  are  to 
effect  so  strongly  and  permanently  our  bodies,  our 
minds,  and  our  hearts. 


Temptations.  173 


CHAPTER   XLIV. 

TEMPTATIONS. 

I  THINK  that  there  is  nothing  which  we  tend  to  picture 
in  our  minds  so  falsely  as  temptations.  I  should  be  in- 
terested to  know  what  ideas  of  temptation  are  held  by 
all  who  read  this  little  book. 

We  are  apt  to  think  of  temptation  as  something 
black  and  terrible.  Perhaps  we  think  of  it  as  something 
bat-like,  hovering  about  with  wings  and  horns  as  Apol- 
lyon  is  pictured  in  the  Pilgrim's  Progress.  Perhaps  the 
preachers  and  moralists  have  had  something  to  do  with 
forming  the  tendency  to  think  of  temptation  in  this  way. 
They  rightly  paint  it  as  something  terrible,  and  so  we 
come  to  think  of  it  as  being  repulsive  in  its  form  as  it  is 
dangerous  to  our  lives. 

In  this  way  we  get  such  notions  of  temptation  that  we 
fail  to  recognize  it  when  it  actually  comes.  We  say,  *'  O 
you  pleasant  and  harmless-looking  thing,  there  cannot 
be  anything  wrong  about  you."  Thus  we  give  our- 
selves up  to  it  and  follow  it  wherever  it  will  lead. 

First  of  all,  you  need  to  fix  in  your  minds  that  temp- 
tation always  preseJits  itself  as  something  extremely 
pleasafzt,  or  at  least  desirable.  This  will  be  clear  if  you 
ask  yourself  what  is  meant  by  a  temptation.  A  tempta- 
tion is,  very  obviously,  something  that  tempts.  It  must, 
therefore,  be  something  that  attracts;    that  is,  that  ap- 


1 74  Ethics  for   Yotino;  People. 

pears  to  be  a  very  pleasant  thing  to  do.  If  it  did  not 
look  pleasant  to  us,  it  would  not  be  a  temptation. 
Nobody  is  ever  tempted  to  do  anything  that  seems  un- 
pleasant. 

In  the  next  place,  you  need  to  fix  it  in  your  mind 
that  the  temptation  always  seems  reasonable.  What 
you  are  tempted  to  do  seems  not  merely  to  be  some- 
thing pleasant;  it  seems  something  that  is,  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent,  reasonable. 

The  pleasantness  is  indeed  sometimes  stronger  than 
the  reasonableness ;  that  is,  a  man  is  so  attracted  by  the 
thing,  that  he  does  it  even  when  his  reason  tells  him  it 
is  neither  right  nor  wise.  This  is,  however,  in  rather 
extreme  cases.  Ordinarily,  temptation  is  as  plausible  as 
it  is  attractive. 

We  see  the  plausibility  of  temptation  from  the  fact 
that  every  mood  and  every  passion  tends  to  justify  itself. 

When  you  are  angry  without  a  reasonable  cause,  you 
do  not  say  to  yourself,  ''  This  anger  is  wrong  and  unrea- 
sonable ;  I  am  making  a  fool  of  myself,  besides  giving 
pain  to  another."  This  is  not  the  way  in  which  you 
reason  with  yourself  when  you  are  in  a  passion.  What 
you  do  say  to  yourself  is  something  like  this :  "  There 
was  never  anybody  in  the  world  that  was  treated  so 
badly  as  I  am.  That  fellow  is  the  meanest,  most  selfish, 
and  most  disagreeable  person  in  the  world.  There  is 
nobody  that  would  not,  if  so  treated,  be  as  angry  as  I 
am.  In  fact,  I  am  not  angry  at  all.  I  was  never  cooler 
in  my  life.  I  see  things  precisely  as  they  are.  I  don't 
care  because  the  thing  was  done  to  me ;   I  only  look  at 


Tempt  a  tions.  175 

the  principle  of  the  thing."  This  you  say,  when,  per- 
haps, you  are  bursting  with  rage,  and  when  in  half  an 
hour  you  will  feel  heartily  ashamed  of  yourself. 

The  boy  that  is  tempted  to  disobey  his  parents  is  apt 
to  put  the  thing  very  plausibly  to  himself.  He  thinks 
perhaps  that  his  parents  would  not  really  care,  or  he 
thinks  that  it  is  so  little  a  matter  that  there  can  be  no 
harm  in  it,  or  he  thinks  that  he  knows  very  much  more 
about  the  thing  than  they  do ;  that  they  forbade  him  to 
go  on  the  ice  because  they  thought  it  was  not  strong 
enough,  whereas  he  knows  that  it  is  as  strong  as  need 
be.  Or,  bethinks  that  there  was  never  a  boy  kept  so 
close  and  so  bothered  by  rules  as  he  is ;  and  that  the 
manly  thing  is  to  assert  his  independence. 

In  all  this  you  see  there  are  many  things  that  he 
does  not  think  of.  He  does  not  think  of  what  he  owes 
to  his  parents,  of  their  love  and  care.  He  does  not 
think  that  they  have  much  more  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence than  he ;  and  that,  though  they  may  now  and  then 
make  a  mistake,  yet  this  is  nothing  to  the  blunders  that 
he  would  make  and  the  trouble  he  would  bring  upon 
himself,  if  he  were  left  to  look  out  for  himself.  He 
does  not  think  of  the  duty  of  obedience. 

A  young  man  in  business  is  tempted  to  take  some 
money  that  belongs  to  his  employer.  We  saw  in  a 
former  chapter  how  the  imagination  leads  him  on  to 
commit  the  theft.  We  now  have  to  see  how  plausible 
the  temptation  may  appear. 

The  young  man  thus  tempted  thinks  that  his  em- 
ployer will  not  miss    the  money;   that  he  will  be  just  as 


I  'j6  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

well  off  without  it  as  with  it,  while  to  himself  it  will  be 
everything.  Then  the  amount  is  so  small  that  it  really 
is  no  great  sin  if  he  takes  it.  Above  all,  he  thinks  that 
it  is  only  a  loan.  He  needs  it  only  for  a  little  time,  and 
then  he  will  restore  it ;  there  can  certainly  be  no  great 
harm  in  that.  He  perhaps  takes  the  money ;  and  after 
a  while  he  is  tempted  to  make  a  similar  "  loan."  He  goes 
through  the  same  reasoning  as  before,  except  that  now 
he  is  deeper  in  debt,  and  he  thinks  that  if  he  does  not 
take  a  little  more  now  he  will  never  be  able  to  pay  back 
that  which  he  took  before.  Finally  he  takes  still  more 
as  a  matter  of  self-defence.  He  will  be  ruined  if  he 
does  not.  It  is  no  longer  a  matter  for  argument.  It 
can  hardly  be  called  a  temptation.  It  is  a  necessity. 
Then,  perhaps,  when  he  persuades  himself  that  it  is  too 
late  to  turn  back,  he  admits,  for  the  first  time,  that  he  is, 
what  he  has  been  all  along,  namely,  a  thief. 

Such  examples  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  for 
all  temptation  is  attractive,  and  nearly  all  temptation  is 
plausible. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  important  things  to  be  borne 
in  mind.  Knowing  under  what  disguise  temptation 
conceals  its  ugliness  and  its  sin,  we  may  be  on  our 
guard  that  we  are  not  imposed  upon  by  it,  and  do  not 
take  it  for  granted  that  because  a  thing  seems  so  attrac- 
tive and  reasonable  it  must  therefore  be  right. 

Temptation  may  be  a  help  as  truly  as  a  hindrance. 
If  it  comes  to  us  without  our  seeking,  resistance  to  it 
may  strengthen  our  moral  fibre,  just  as  meeting  and 
conquering    any    physical    or    mental     obstacle     may 


Temptatioiis.  lyy 

strengthen  our  bodily  or  mental  fibre.  Emerson  says : 
^*  As  the  Sandwich  Islander  believes  that  the  strength 
and  valor  of  the  enemy  he  kills  passes  into  himself,  so 
we  gain  the  strength  of  the  temptation  we  resist."  ^ 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  when  one 
throws  himself  willingly  in  the  way  of  temptation,  he 
shows  that  he  is  already  half  prepared  to  yield  to  it. 


Compensation,"  in  the  first  series  of  Essays. 


178  Ethics  for  Young  People, 


CHAPTER    XLV. 

THE    CONSCIENCE. 

The  conscience  is  that  within  a  man  which,  if  he  is 
tempted  to  do  wrong,  often  warns  him  and  strives  to 
hold  him  back.  If  he  persists  in  the  act,  conscience  often 
makes  him  very  uncomfortable  while  it  is  being  done, 
and  when  the  deed  has  been  accomplished  reproaches 
him  for  his  fault. 

Conscience  is  thus  placed  to  be  the  guide  of  our  life. 
We  may  compare  it  to  the  private  oracle  of  Socrates,  of 
which  I  have  already  spoken.  Or,  we  may  compare  it 
to  the  compass,  which  is  placed  in  a  ship  in  order  that 
by  it  the  sailors  may  control  their  course. 

Nothing  in  our  lives  can  be  more  important  than  that 
we  should  attend  to  the  voice  of  conscience,  and  obey 
it;  disobedience  to  it  means  the  ruin  of  our  lives. 

Yet  there  is  scarcely  anything  of  which  men  are 
more  heedless,  so  far  as  care  for  it  is  concerned,  even  if 
they  pay  more  or  less  attention  to  its  warnings. 

Consider  how  careful  the  sailors  are  of  the  compass 
by  which  they  are  to  steer  the  ship.  The  compass, 
you  know,  does  not  point  exactly  north  and  south ;  it 
varies  a  little  according  to  the  part  of  the  world  where 
it  is.  It  is  more  or  less  affected  by  what  is  about  it. 
The  iron  that  is  in  the  ship  affects  it,  and  makes  its  irreg- 
ularity greater.      If  all  this  were  not  known  and  thought 


The  Co7iscience.  •     179 

of,  the  compass  might  lead  the  ship  to  its  destruction.  But 
it  is  all  thought  of.  The  t^ariation  of  the  needle  is  taken 
into  the  account.  An  extra  compass  is  sometimes 
placed  at  the  mast  head,  far  above  any  disturbance  from 
the  iron  that  enters  into  the  construction  of  the  ship,  in 
order  that  there  it  may  follow  its  own  laws. 

The  conscience,  like  the  compass,  has  its  variations. 
It  does  not  always  point  straight  to  the  right.  Some- 
times, in  critical  moments,  it  fails  to  give  any  indication 
whatever. 

Surely  these  irregularities  are  worthy  of  the  most 
careful  study.     Let  us  consider  some  of  them. 

The  conscience  is  sometimes  wholly  silent  when  we  have 
most  need  of  its  guidance. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  number  of  our  faults  are  those 
of  omission  and  carelessness.  In  moments  of  pure 
thoughtlessness  the  conscience  is  inactive ;  and  yet  it  is 
in  these  moments  that  we  often  need  it  most. 

Suppose  that  a  man  has  some  important  duty  to  per- 
form. He  is  perhaps  the  captain  of  an  ocean  steamer. 
His  vessel  is  in  critical  circumstances,  and  needs  his 
care.  He  goes  down  to  his  dinner,  gets  interested  in 
talking  with  his  passengers,  and  forgets  his  ship,  until 
it  is  too  late. 

It  is  through  such  neglect  that  many  bad  habits  ob- 
tain the  mastery  over  men.  They  come  from  pure 
thoughtlessness ;    and  conscience  gives  no  warning. 

Acts  of  cruelty  often  spring  from  thoughtlessness. 
The  person  speaks  or  acts  without  thought,  and  the 
conscience  has  no  opportunity  to  protest. 


l8o    '  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

How  much  damage  is  done  by  pure  heedlessness. 
The  boy  does  not  mean  to  do'  any  harm,  but  the  harm 
is  done.  If  it  were  anything  wrong  that  he  was  making 
up  his  mind  to  do,  conscience  would  speak ;  but  at  what 
moment  could  it  interfere  in  this  time  of  utter  careless- 
ness? 

It  is  worth  while  to  remember,  then,  that  during  so 
large  portions  of  our  life  conscience  sleeps  at  its  post. 
It  is  at  times,  too,  in  which  we  most  need  its  guidance, 
for  they  are  full  of  peril  and  temptation. 

Knowing  this  failure  of  conscience,  we  should  take  it 
into  our  calculation,  as  the  sailor  takes  into  his  calculation 
the  irregularity  of  his  compass.  We  should  provide 
against  danger  by  taking  measures  in  advance  for  our 
protection. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  things  in  our  natures, 
that  we  can  govern  ourselves  even  in  these  m-ojnents  of 
carelessness.  A  boy,  for  instance,  starts  to  go  to  school. 
He  starts  early  so  as  to  give  himself  time  to  play  by 
the  way.  Having  this  time,  he  stops  to  play.  In  all 
this  there  is  nothing  wrong.  But  in  his  play  he  forgets 
his  school,  and  so  arrives  tardy,  or  not  at  all.  How 
can  this  tardiness  and  all  similar  results  of  heedlessness 
be  prevented?  --^ 

The  trouble  with  the  boy  was  that  he  did  not  fix  it 
with  sufficient  force  in  his  mind  that  he  must  be  at 
school  at  the  proper  hour.  If  he  had  done  this,  issuing 
to  himself  a  peremptory  command,  the  force  of  this 
command  would  have  been  felt  even  in  his  thoughtless- 
ness and  play ;   and  the  impulse  which  he  gave  to  him- 


The  Conscience.  i8i 

self  at  starting  would  have  brought  him  safe  to  school 
at  its  opening. 

Knowing,  then,  that  we  are  thus  exposed,  through 
thoughtlessness,  to  do  what  we  shall  afterwards  wish  had 
not  been  done,  or  to  neglect  what  we  shall  wish  had 
been  done,  we  should,  in  advance,  issue  our  commands 
to  ourselves ;  and  if  these  commands  are  given  earnestly, 
the  self,  even  in  our  forgetfulness,  will  be  pretty  sure  to 
obey. 

Conscience  often  fails  to  warn  us  when  we  are  doing 
wrong,  because  we  persuade  ourselves  that  what  we  are 
doing  is  not  wrong.  In  the  chapter  on  temptation  we 
have  seen  that  every  mood  and  every  passion  tends  to 
justify  itself.  This  plausibility  of  temptation  does  much 
to  silence  the  voice  of  conscience. 

In  one  way  the  conscience  comes  to  our  help  in  these 
matters.  After  the  fact,  it  often  reproaches  us  with  our 
wrong-doing  or  our  neglect.  We  feel  that  our  careless- 
ness was  wrong,  perhaps  even  a  crime  or  a  sin.  This 
after-thought  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  means 
by  which  conscience  trains  us.  We  had  not  dreamed 
the  thing  was  wrong  till  we  feel  the  reproach.  Being 
impressed  in  this  way  by  conscience  that  we  have  done 
wrong,  v/e  shall  find  it  easier  at  another  time  to  re- 
member and  to  avoid  the  offence. 

Thus  0ne  speaks  a  word  that  gives  pain  to  another. 
Seeing  the  pain  that  he  has  caused,  he  reproaches  him- 
self with  his  carelessness  or  his  ill-temper.  This  re- 
proach is  the  voice  of  conscience.  The  person  has 
learned  a  lesson ;    namely,  that  such   cruelty,   whether 


1 82  Ethics  for   Young  People. 

designed  or  not,  is  wrong.  Another  time,  he  may  re- 
member this  lesson,  and  keep  back  the  sharp  and  poi- 
soned speech. 

All  this  suggests  another  way  in  which  conscience 
may  come  to  fail  us  in  our  hour  of  need.  If  we  do  not 
heed  its  voice,  it  will  tend  to  become  silent  and  leave  us  to 
ourselves.  In  this  respect  it  may  be  compared  to  some 
delicate  tool.  A  boy  has  a  good  jackknife  given  to  him. 
He  is  pleased  with  the  gift  and  begins  to  use  it  on 
everything.  He  tries  to  cut  pieces  of  wood  that  have 
knots  in  them ;  or  brings  its  edge  even  against  nails. 
The  knife,  being  forced  thus  against  what  will  not  yield, 
becomes  dull  and  jagged,  and  finally  refuses  to  cut  any- 
thing. When  we  do  not  heed  our  conscience,  we  our- 
selves are  the  hard  bodies  by  which  it  is  dulled  and 
made  useless.  Or  we  may  compare  it  to  a  magnet, 
which,  if  it  is  not  used,  tends  to  lose  its  power,  and  to 
become  like  any  other  bit  of  steel. 

Another  way  in  which  the  conscience  loses  its  power 
is  through  the  influe7ice  of  bad  companions.  We  have 
seen,  in  another  chapter,  how  much  we  are  influenced 
by  those  with  whom  we  associate.  We  tend  to 
forget  that  what  we  become  accustomed  to  see  and 
hear  is  wrong.  We  come  to  think  that  we  can  do 
without  harm  what  others  do.  Thus  we  quiet  our  con- 
science, and  it  ceases  for  a  time,  at  least,  to  trouble  us. 

Some  may  think,  perhaps,  that  it  is  a  great  thing  if 
they  can  thus  get  rid  of  so  troublesome  a  companion. 
Two  things  are,  however,  to  be  remembered. 

One  is,  that  though  the  conscience  may  be  put  to  sleep 


The  Conscience,  1 83 

for  a  time,  it  may  sometime  awake.  Though  we  may- 
avoid  its  guidance,  perhaps  we  may  not  always  avoid  its 
reproaches.  The  second  is,  that  one  who  has  lost  his 
conscience  has  lost  the  best  part  of  his  manhood. 

I  am  sure,  however,  that  most  will  feel  that  the  con- 
science is  a  thing  to  be  watched  and  guarded  and  obeyed, 
as  the  sailors  watch  and  guard  and  obey  the  compass 
which  is  their  guide,  that  thus  the  voyage  of  life  may  be, 
in  the  truest  sense,  a  successful  one. 


184  Ethics  for  Young  People. 


CHAPTER  XLVL 

CONCLUSION. 

This  little  book  is  simply  an  introduction  to  the  study 
of  Ethics.  At  its  close  it  may  be  well  to  glance  for  a 
moment  at  some  of  the  elements  that  enter  into  this 
study  when  it  is  pursued  more  fully. 

One  part  of  Ethics  consists  in  considering  the  relation 
between  morality  and  religion^  how  far  morality  is  helped 
by  religion  and  generally  affected  by  religion.  This  is 
a  very  important  matter  for  consideration. 

There  is  also  to  be  studied  the  philosophy  of  morality^ 
what  are  its  fundamental  principles,  and  what  is  the  basis 
upon  which  it  finally  rests;  and  what  is  its  relation  to 
our  thought  of  the  world  in  general. 

There  is  also  the  history  of  Ethics.  This  consists  of 
two  parts.  One  is  the  history  of  the  various  theories 
about  morality,  and  the  other  is  the  history  of  morality 
itself,  showing  the  stages  through  which  different  peoples 
have  passed  in  their  moral  life,  and  the  historical  origin 
and  development  of  the  different  virtues. 

There  is  also  what  is  called  applied  Ethics.  This,  al- 
so, may  have  two  parts.  In  one  it  may  consider,  as  we 
have  been  doing,  only  much  more  fully,  what  is  the  true 
life  for  individuals.  In  the  other  part,  it  considers  the 
application  of  Ethical  principles  to  the  world  at  large, 
and  seeks  to  discover  what  are  the  best  methods  of 
charity  and  reform. 


Conclusion.  185 

This  last  is  a  very  important  aspect  of  Ethical 
study.  There  is  much  suffering  in  the  world  from  pov- 
erty and  crime ;  and  one  of  the  most  pressing  needs  of 
the  world  to-day  is  that  those  who  have  the  good  of 
others  at  heart  should  find  out  the  best  way  of  lighten- 
ing or  removing  these  evils.  I  hope  all  who  read  this 
little  book  will  take  an  interest  in  this  branch  of  Ethical 
study,  and  will  do  something  to  make  the  world  better 
and  happier. 


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